Paint 3D's New Groove
by footballfan1198
Summary: Sanae needs your help! She's attempting to renovate the human village, but a mysterious force is shutting down her efforts and breaking all of her stuff- and then they wanna come after her! It's up to you and your awesome original characters to give her a hand, help out Moriya Construction, Suwa Co. LLC, and take back the borders of the Human Village!
1. gelbooru

Sanae stood atop the windmill outside the Human Village.

It was January. She was working to bring water and power to the Human Village, in the name of the goddesses Yasaka and Moriya.

Taking a deep breath, she stood atop the unfinished frame of the windmill, and down at the partially dug-up riverbed that would course through the village.

On the ground below, girthy villager men exerted their force on the supplies. They stomped their shoes through the crops, punched their thick arms against the side of a metal crane, and slammed their bodies down onto bags of seeds, blowing them open and spilling their contents everywhere.

'_What the hell.'_ Sanae really wasn't sure where this mass of foreign men came from. They didn't seem like they were from around here, even. _'Where'd all these fat guys come from…?'_

From below, a fierce banging awoke Sanae's senses.

A large man was coming up the stairs towards her, a huge grin on his face. "Hh… hey. Hey, you, girlie."

"Who the heck're you." Sanae folded her arms. "Why're your douchebags breaking our stuff?"

"We was told there'd be bitches and booze." The American man flashed a yellow grin. "The fuck _you_ gonna do about it?"

"Hit you?" Sanae strolled closer, looking worried. "Like…"

From nearby, he took a piece of long lumber off the floor. "Oh, _yeah?_ Wehehell, in _that_ case-"

In a moment, Sanae clubbed him across the head with her gohei.

Loudly, he fell back, stumbling onto and down the twisting stairs that lead up to the windmill's top. _"Huu- aa- aagha- aah!"_

"Um…" Sanae watched him tumble down, grimacing. "Wh-... whoops."

Floating into the air, she took from the windmill's top, and floated down into the clearing where more foreign men were doing varying jobs of smashing random equipment and supplies.

"What're you all doing!?" Sanae yelled at them all. "Stop it!"

There were a lot. Way more than she thought, even.

She floated higher into the air, avoiding a pack of wolves that ran for her below. "Wh- what the heck…!"

Then, an explosion. The men had rocket launchers, too, and began shooting them around, blowing up crates and piles of dirt.

"_What!"_ Her eyes widening, Sanae almost staggered back in the air. "Wh-"

She leaned out of the way of some oncoming, poorly aimed RPG rounds.

At this point, she wasn't even upset. The sheer surreality of the situation hadn't even sank into her mind, until she had to lean out of the way of live rockets. _'Am-... am I dreaming? What the hell's going on…!'_

"_Arfh! Arh!"_ Wolves barked up at her from below, while men pushed the crane into the open riverbed.

There were at least a hundred foreign men, some not even in villager regalia, moving to tear at crates and stonework. Some had hammers, and some had the aforementioned rocket launchers.

She was forced to float away, not really interested in finding out if they had any actual firearms, or if she could survive a pointblank rocket blast.

From a more distant plain, still somewhat near the village, she stared up at the windmill as it was bombarded by explosions.

'_This- could be really bad, if it spreads to more than our construction project…! Did the outside break in somehow!? Are those actually human dudes? Um…!'_

Then, a hand tapped on her shoulder.

She turned, seeing a man with sunglasses, clad in a long black coat. He was a Japanese man, and his hair was slick black, unassuming.

"Sanae Kochiya?" He asked. "I am Jo Amon."

"...Ye- yeah?" Sanae really wasn't sure if she should just hit him right now…

"I have been enlisted to shut down your Human Village improvement project." He announced. "To that end, I have conscripted over one hundred thousand Americans, who may be accurately transported within the Hakurei Barrier almost anywhere, at any time necessary to prevent your construction efforts."

...Sanae blinked idly, her face going through a mixture of emotions. "What? Why…?"

"If you'd like to contest this," he held out a sheet of parchment, "you must meet me in the Grand Bullfighting Ring in Okinawa, Japan. Bring up to six of Gensokyo's most valuable warriors to help you. Or, if you're confident, bring anyone who you feel will let you turn the tide of our numerical superiority."

Sanae took the parchment, brows furrowed.

Folding his arms, Jo frowned. "You have _twenty four hours_ to reply. If you do not, our men will come to your shrine and take what is theirs."

Sanae felt a pang of fear. _'My computer!'_

"I look forward to our encounter, Sanae Kochiya." With that, Jo Amon phased out of Gensokyo, his form vanishing as he simply willed himself elsewhere.

...Blinking, Sanae stared down at the parchment.

'_What the hell'm I supposed to do. Like…'_

She didn't have the time to get _all_ the girls together and ready in just twenty four hours, she was sure. And, six people? She was sure she wouldn't get _six_ of them to help! She didn't want to bother her goddesses with something she could solve easily herself either...

Then she snapped her fingers.

'_I'll just briefly ask them to send out a distress signal on the wind! I'll ask everyone in Gensokyo at once, and I oughta get way more than six people to help out! Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya- everyone's gonna come lightning fast, if they can!'_

With a burst of wind, Sanae took off, beholding the exploding windmill along the land below as she soared across Gensokyo's landscape.

'_I'll need your help now, everyone! Miracle power, don't fail me now!'_

_PAINT 3D'S NEW GROOVE_

**Original Character Submission Form**

**Name: **Your dude's _name_.

**Age: **About how _old_ they are!

**Gender: **I HOPE YOU KNOW 'CAUSE I DON'T

**Species: **You- you know, right?

**Appearance:** GO WILD REALLY

**Personality: **i expect a ten thousand word essay

**Primary Weapon: **don't pick plant hangers those suck

**Secondary Weapon: **don't pick stickybomb launchers those are primaries

**Reason for Joining: **bring me sanae

**Paint Color: ****i need more cum**

**Desired Difficulty: **big dick energy; how absolutely assfuck the opposing mooks will be

Y'SEE Y'GOT like AROUND FOUR CHOICES

_Easy:_ humans and fuckin' wolves who cares

_Normal:_ youkai and humans with BAZOOKAS and horse shit

_Hard:_ lotsa youkai and big dumb things like yuki-onna and some oni and moon rabbits and tanks

_NIGHTMARE:_ ZOMBIE HYDRAS, COSMIC MONOLITHS, YAMAXANADUS AND ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, GALACTIC HORRORS

here's an example of an acceptable OC:

name: chuckles the clown

species: clown

gender: boy

appearnace: red hair and makeup and bright red nose

affflation moryia corps

personality: funny but in a good way and also really nice

reason for joining side: sanae

weapon of choice: generic paintball gun but also pies

paint color: that one color between yellow and green

what i do with the information: i try and represent the OC to the best of my abilities or make fun of them if i think their concept is stoopid or funniable

your OC might or might not be killed in the line of action but sanae's gonna try and get everyone through this alive!

if there are enough slots filled for the defense, don't worry! your OC might make it into the next defense! i might make them each like a chapter long or something, i write big chapters


	2. Introducing the Guest Stars!

'_Where the heck are they…!?'_

Sanae sat inside the half blown-up windmill, in the better half of a chair that was shot by a rocket at one point. Teeth braced, she rapped her left hand on the wood of a table before herself over and over again.

It was dusk, and the day was coming to an end. So far, she hadn't seen high or low of anyone.

'_I- I thought I sent the call for help to everyone! Surely, it wouldn't take like, um, six to eight hours, right…?'_

She couldn't even work up the right energy to play on her Nintendo DS.

'_If no one shows up- I- I really need to back up my computer to a big drive or something.'_ The whole shrine could be replaced by Suwako easily. Her computer, hardware-wise it'd be a pain, but it could be replaced too.

Her personal data, like game files, however? No. That'd be years of save files gone. She'd had that computer since she was a teenager.

'_Provided, I could use an upgrade maybe, but like, there won't be anything to upgrade if no one shows up! Man, this sucks.'_

She also didn't want to explain the thorough awkwardness of her windmill project being ruined by a sudden influx of American macho men. Getting the goddess Yasaka to issue a whisper on the wind to all the land wasn't easy.

'_If I'm unlucky, she'll ask questions when we're done, or look around…'_ Sanae hadn't been fully honest with her.

She'd told Kanako she needed _muscle help_ with the construction efforts. Not that they were under extreme, sudden siege by the might of one hundred thousand Americans. She wasn't sure if Kanako would even _believe _her.

"Sanae…!?" That's naturally when Kanako showed up.

'_Oh, no!'_

On a playful breeze, Kanako arced through a huge hole in the wall, searching the scorched, shattered remains of the annihilated wind mill.

"Thank goodness." Kanako sighed, staring down at Sanae. "Sanae, what happened here? It looks like the windmill exploded. All the cranes- the tools we ordered… why is most of it _broken?"_

"Um…" Sanae felt shame build up. "Th-... these people came by- and, um…"

"Broke _all_ of it?" Kanako furrowed her brows. "Are you serious?"

"I- I am!" Sanae nodded twice, becoming determined. "I didn't tell you at first- 'cause I didn't think you'd believe me. But, we got attacked by a _serious_ amount of… of I don't know! People who _looked_ like foreigners!"

...Kanako floated there in the air, her brows furrowed. If Gensokyo was being infiltrated by a foreign force, then perhaps Sanae _shouldn't_ be the only barrier between them and widespread mayhem.

"Could this be an incident?" Kanako considered.

Sanae looked up at her, blinking. "Um. Well… I- I don't know. But, I wanted to stop them before they hurt anything other than this project thing of ours. The village nearby seems fine."

Sanae had walked around for hours, looking for traces of damage while waiting. It was somehow neatly contained, even if some trees had rocket holes bored into them.

"Also!" Sanae held up a finger. "Um. This guy… Jo Amon, I think. He showed up, and like…"

She took out the parchment Jo Amon gave her. It was just the Original Character submission form, and she wasn't sure what the heck she would use it for.

Abandoning it on the table, she looked up at Kanako again. "We-... when we actually get like, six people to help, we need to go to Okinawa right away."

Kanako blinked numbly. "O- Okinawa. That's-... awfully specific. Who's this… Amon?"

"I dunno!" Sanae threw her arms in the air. "We gotta like-... meet him, and stuff! He really wanted to fight us, or something!"

"...Well." Kanako folded her arms. "I'd like to have a word with him, too. Anywhere _specifically_ in Okinawa, or will we know when we get there?"

"Oh." Sanae blinked. "The Grand Bullfighting Arena."

"...Okay." Kanako felt like that was also really weird, but at this point she wasn't going to question it just yet.

She was also somewhat concerned by Sanae's flustered state, but she'd also wait to do something about that. A lot about the situation didn't make sense, and she had to observe some things for herself.

'_On that note,'_ Sanae's hands ran into her green hair. _'Where the heck's the people who're supposed to help me!? It's almost ten at night! Oh, man. I'm screwed…'_

_Crea~k._ That's when the battered door into the windmill groaned open.

Sanae took pause, mouth open in slight awe. _'Is-... is that Reimu? Marisa? Sakuya…?'_

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Raltan Vargas!_

HUNTER - SLUGGER - SKIRMISHER

Idly, Raltan Vargas pushed his way into the windmill. His sky blue eyes were at first somewhat lazy, then neutral, as he registered Sanae and Kanako's presence.

He was a young-looking teenager, with spiky, dark grey hair. In his offhand, he was twirling a bat between his fingers, but he stopped awkwardly once he saw he was actually in company.

In truth? He hadn't really expected that weird voice he heard on the wind to actually be telling the truth. Admittedly, it'd have been the first time he ever went slightly schizophrenic when following his sense of adventure, but there's a first time for everything, right?

"Is-" He sized up Kanako's floating form, before stopping himself from asking a silly question. That was pretty obviously Kanako Yasaka, goddess of wind and weather.

"Oh, hey!" Sanae bounced up from her seat, and beamed at him. "I- I'm Sanae! Did you come to help defend our stuff!?"

"...Ye- yeah." Raltan swallowed, and nodded, slinging his metal pummeling bat over his own shoulder. "I heard your call. You um, said there was gonna be fighting?"

"Probably a lot!" Sanae nodded a bunch. "Like-... like, I mean _big!_ Full-scale warfare!"

...Raltan wasn't really sure how to take that, but for now he supposed it was a good sign. He was _really_ not sure how this quiet evening would transition to full-scale warfare anytime soon, but the idea made him slightly giddy inside.

"Full scale war." Kanako confirmed this herself. "...Re- really."

Sanae nodded at her too. "Ye- yeah. There's… um, a lot. Like-... a- a hundred thousand?"

"Sanae, what did you _do."_ Kanako beamed skeptically. "Where did _one hundred thousand_ soldiers come from. Gensokyo doesn't even have _ten thousand_ humans, let alone _an entire national army."_

Raltan echoed this. "Wh- _one hundred thousand_ Americans."

Still, this really reminded Kanako of something similar. The time she herself invaded the nation of Suwa…

Then, with this realization, Kanako paused.

"That's what _I_ wanna know~!" Sanae beamed awkwardly back. "But I saw some of them! They had rocket launchers- and _wolves!"_

"This is getting ridiculous." Kanako shook her head…

"Hol' up-" Raltan raised his dark gray brows in slight worry. _"Rocket launchers?"_

"_He~y!"_ That's when a new, cheery voice bubbled onto the scene.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Rachel Heartway!_

DEBUFFER - SKIRMISHER - HARASSMENT

She was a smiley, quirky brown-haired teen girl, who romped inside behind Raltan, waving her arm happily.

"Oh!" Sanae perked up. "Reim-... Reimu?"

"Wow!" Rachel beamed at everyone. "...I wasn't tricked, after all!"

She wore a Hakurei shrine maiden outfit. Between her clothes and her hair, she looked vaguely like Reimu, except if Reimu was thirteen, and her outfit was slightly off in design.

Sanae slouched. "...You're, um-... you're not Reimu."

"Nope!" Rachel's smile was brilliantly toothy. "I'm Rachel! But I do love Reimu!"

...Sanae's hope was slowly trickling away, like an awkwardly adjusted faucet. "Are-... are you one of the weirdos from the Artificial Hakurei Project?"

"Nope!" Rachel shook her head gladly. "Screw those guys! They wanna _overthrow_ Reimu, I wanna help her! Like, I even work for the Hakurei God too, and everything!"

'_So, she doesn't even have the dumb tools those guys use. Oh, geez…'_

From behind her back, she took out a big bag of mix. "I brought pancakes! Uh, _pancake mix._ I- I didn't know if there'd actually _be anyone here,_ so I just brought the mix…. it's also like, _nine PM."_

"Aw, sick." Raltan liked that, turning to her. "Y'know, I'm kinda hungry, actually…"

Rachel vaguely stared up his form, slightly put off by his height and the bat he had on his shoulder…

"Anyway!" Skirting past him, she ran up to Sanae. "Rachel Heartway, reporting for duty!" With a hard, eager smile, Rachel gave her a salute. "I hope I impress you, Sanae!"

"Oh, yeah." Raltan stepped up next to them, too. "I'm Raltan. Raltan Vargas."

Jumping onto one leg, Rachel winked, and held a hand up to her open eye, making a sideways V before it. "I've been studying my _butt_ off! I- I _think_ I can prod off youkai now, and stuff!"

'_Oh, man, there's already some distance between these two.'_ Sanae's expression was vague. _'When can um, the real Reimu show up…?'_

Raltan gave Rachel an unsure look. "You-... you _think?_ Fighting's gonna be a big part of this. Like- are you _sure_ about this?"

Rachel gave an even, borderline glare-like look up at him. "Don't talk _down _to me, you whacko. You hit people with that bat. I save the people of the human village!"

Raltan's brows furrowed at that. "I~... _wasn't_ talking down to you, though? Like, we're fighting dudes with _rocket launchers._ If one of those were to hit ya-"

"What's a rocket launcher!?" Rachel beamed back at him. "Whatever it is, I'll hit 'em with my gohei!"

Raltan snorted, noting the way she had her gohei over her shoulder. Their posture was actually almost identical… "You know- I _don't_ think that's all that different from my bat, actually."

"Except I don't hurt people!" Rachel looked satisfied. "I save them, and hurt youkai!"

"Yeah, news flash, basically what I do too." Raltan shook his head. "I don't pretend to be something I'm not, either."

Rachel began to look playfully aggressive. "Ooh!? I- can't really factually _say_ that you're wrong, but I _really doubt it!_ And I really_ do_ help out the Hakurei God, I think!_"_

'_You- you think…?'_

"Can we just agree that you're both whackos and leave it at that." Sanae _really_ didn't want there to be any infighting already.

_Creak- clack, clack._ The windmill door rattled harder, as a taller, more imposing figure moved inside. She had to crouch down slightly to avoid the door's overhang.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Eleria!_

TANK - DAMAGE SPONGE - CONTROL

She was a tall woman, with long brown hair, and a huge smile. She had a dark grey cloak on her back, and an overall greyish, mobile-looking dress on. It was an indescribably general anime outfit, but it wasn't really a _dress,_ so to speak.

She was older than everyone already here, in her thirties. She had strange handles hooked onto the sides of her skirt, and on her back was a massive blue-gray lance.

"He~y!" Huge smile still clad, the massive, six foot tall woman marched into the room, amidst the younger people. "You're _Sanae,_ right?" She pointed a gloved hand at Sanae.

"Um. Ye- yeah…" Sanae had a small look, as she stared up at the woman who was a head taller than she was. "You're here to help?"

Eleria wiped her nose idly with her wrist, and nodded. "Yep. Heard Yasaka's call. Just woke up a couple minutes ago. I was _dreamin'_ about this fight!"

"It- it's almost _ten at night."_ Sanae grinned…

"I operate on Cthulhu time." Eleria clarified. "Nocturnal, baby."

"You're-..." Rachel was intimidated, by the woman two heads taller than she was. "You're _big…"_

"You're tiny." Eleria had an endeared smile, as she beheld Rachel's form. "You're not thinking of going out there and fighting _yourself,_ are ya?"

"I- I am, though!" Rachel had an uneven smile, her arms propped up at her sides as she protested. "I can fight youkai! If- if all else fails, I'll like, stand behind you…"

...Plainly, Eleria shrugged. "That's what you should be doing anyway."

"That lance is _huge."_ Raltan beheld the seven or eight foot tall polearm on her back. "Can you even _wield that?"_

Eleria gave him a neutral look.

...He awkwardly fidgeted under her stare. "Um. Stupid question, nevermind."

"Are _you_ a warrior?" Eleria wasn't sure. "You look a little skinny for this sort of job."

"I mean…" He shrugged, and grinned. "Grass _grows,_ dude. Birds fly. And, y'know what I do? I hurt people."

"_Aha!"_ Rachel pointed at him, beaming victoriously. "If we weren't working together, I'd hafta stop you!"

"...I hurt people _who deserve it,_ you _idiot."_ Raltan beamed too, before stomping up and into her face. "It's just like what _you're gonna do right now…!"_

"I don't break people's kneecaps with a _bat!"_ Rachel giddily yelled back.

"And I _do._" Raltan affirmed, before catching himself. "A gohei's _really not that different!"_ Raltan held his free arm out. "And- I think Hakurei talismans are probably _worse!_ Actually- I don't know-_"_

"I cut people's heads off with a lance." Eleria had a satisfied smile, as she nodded in the background of their debate.

...Both of them gave her a dubious look.

While everyone was quiet, an oblong, earth green metal thing drifted down from above, bobbing down past Kanako, who gave it an awkward stare.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Raika Saino!_

ENGINEER - SUPPORT - CONTROL

A brown-haired, yellow-eyed villager girl sat atop the green, oblong drone. Her brown-blue outfit was incredibly plain, and somewhat baggy.

Her shoulder-length brown hair shook in the night air. The drone she rode in on had piercing, red LED eyes, which shone out from its dense, plated metal armor.

"I-" Her voice was caught on the wind for a moment, so she had to begin again. "I- I see this is actually-... going on…"

"...It's going on, alright." Kanako was the only one to reply, when everyone simply gingerly stared at her. "You may want to speak louder, too. Between tonight's wind, and your… _robot's noise,_ you're not easy for a human to hear."

"Oh." Raika fidgeted atop her floating drone. "Um…"

Once it dipped low enough, she hopped off of it. "It- shouldn't be making noise, though. But-" She realized it _was._ "Mmh…"

Eleria smiled wider. "This's becomin' a _party._ What's _your_ name, li'l girl?"

Raika awkwardly adjusted her hair, and stretched her somewhat unused limbs, working the kinks from them. "Raika. Raika Saino."

"...Eleria." Eleria realized she hadn't uttered her name yet. "Just Eleria."

"What the _heck's_ that." Rachel stared the floating, slightly humming drone in the eyes.

Raika paused at that, before giving her a smile. "Um. It's- it's one of my _sentry drones…_"

As Rachel stared the hovering hunk of metal down, it emanated an ominous, rising hum. "I um… I see!"

"...Does it _do_ anything?" Raltan was morbidly curious, as he also stared down its pinprick, red eyes.

"Um. Yeah." Raika nodded at him. "I- I can make more. Do you wanna see?"

"Make more?" Raltan ran his gaze across her plain, overall-esque outfit. "With what? Just, right here?"

"Yeah." Raika nodded again. "Let me just-..."

'_Gods.'_ Sanae had the vaguest expression. _'I'm getting an awkward afterschool club, not a party full of heroes…!'_

"It's kinda cute!" Rachel beamed at the sentry drone, as it statically stared at her. "...Can I pet it?" She reached to pet it anyway-

Raika tensed up, and bolted to pull on her. "Nn- _no, don't!"_

When Rachel's hand got near, an ear-piercing, repeated alarm-esque beep screamed from the drone-

Raika pulled her away, her modified plain boots beginning to slide along the floor as she messily tossed Rachel towards Sanae-

Then, a blinding, deafening explosion came from the sentry drone. It exploded into amber, force and fire, metal shrapnel shooting every which way and into the walls.

Metal rang, Raltan's bat deflecting a shard of green metal. Eleria used a hand to brush off a huge, twirling plate.

"Aa-" Rachel ended up her back on the floor, staring up at the night sky through the open windmill ceiling. "Oo- ow…"

"Um-" Raika looked back at everyone with wide eyes, her gliding shoes deactivating. "I'm- really, _really_ sorry!"

Sanae stood from behind the couch she took cover behind. "Wh-... why'd it _explode!?"_

"Why _wouldn't_ it." Raltan jeered.

"Ooh…" Sitting back up, Rachel smiled unevenly. "Wh- why _did_ it explode…?"

Raika locked up in awkwardness, rapidly searching everyone's stares. "Um… uh-... they- they're _kamikaze rushing robots._"

Sanae nodded. "But-... but _why?"_

Raika really wasn't prepared for that sort of question. "They-... they _just are?"_

"Y'gotta make more." Raltan felt like this was gonna be good. "How fast can you _make_ those?"

Raika latched onto this, avoiding the previous questions. "Let- let me show you!"

Moving for a counter in the back of the windmill, Raika reached into her overalls.

Metal clacked onto the wood counter. An earth green, fridge-width metal frame was drawn from in her overalls, metal crossbars separating it into four quadrants.

The clicking grew louder, as she took out a reddish-brown toolbox, setting it aside.

Popping it open, drawing a wrench, she quickly drew huge, green metal bars from her overalls.

They were at least six feet tall, and taller than she was.

The churning of metal was rapid, as she fixed the bars into place on the frames.

Automatically, black-gray pads of metal pushed out from inside the thicker parts of the base's quadrated metal frame. They made a whining noise, automatically emerging from inside, somehow stored within an impossible space.

Soon, it was done. It was also pretty ugly looking. It was basically like a stand-up shower, except without a shower head.

Standing up onto the counter, she fixed showerhead-like pieces onto the top of each of the varying height metal bars. "Um-... ah." She put some of them onto the wrong slots, she realized. "Knew I should've labeled- ugh…"

"Where were you _holding_ all of that." Sanae may have been not easily phased at this point, but she still had to ask. "Where'd it _come from._"

Once the clicking was finished, Raika stood up from the counter, and hopped off. "Aa- alright! So- it should already all be powered… ss- so…"

Wincing, she drew a remote control from within her overalls, and pushed the button. "Produci~ng, sentry drones!"

That's when the robot manufactory whined, humming to life. A beacon of red- faded enough to be brownish- light emerged from the clumsy looking metal pad, and similarly-tinted lasers began to spray at the air immediately within the shower head quadfecta.

Metal chunked and chonked from the greyish, glowing pads, generated from seemingly nothing. The right parts were forwarded on the spot, raised by one of the lasers, before being melded, positioned and nuanced by the three other beams.

Raika clapped her hands together, grinning genuinely for the first time tonight. "One drone er'ry thirty seconds. They, um… they came in really handy- when I shacked up in the woods. Just-... if- if you want _danmaku versions,_ um… I might need to go home for more parts."

Sanae watched in morbid awe, as one of the deadly, floating green kamikaze drones hovered into the air, completed, and a new one was already in production.

"...That's- fine." Sanae wasn't sure.

'_I'm not even sure if that's tech anymore. I- I think that's just… metal magic, or something.'_

"Holy shit." Raltan stared up, as the second kamikaze charger drone was completed in moments. "...Can you make me a sword?"

"A-..." Raika paused. "A sword? Uh. Maybe?"

"Um…" That's when another young man stepped onto the scene.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Akihito Kawanda!_

ROAMER - REVENGINEER - SKIRMISHER

He had a broadsword bigger than he was on his back. His eyes were red, as he pushed his way into the windmill. "Mm- mmh…" He faltered slightly, looking at the four giant floating drones with red eyes in the air. "What- the hell're those…"

Eleria grinned at his short stature. "What coward's sending _teenagers_ to fight?"

Akihito Kawanda pouted up at her. "I'm-... sh- shut up. I'm _twenty._ _Twenty._"

Raika held up her hand from afar. "I'm-... I'm twe- twenty five!"

Rachel had a small expression, lying on the floor still. "...I- I'm thirteen."

Eleria had a mixed expression, as she scanned the various, seemingly randomly aged people.

"You're _twenty?" _Raltan's head jerked back. "...You're like, a _head or two_ shorter than me."

"So _what?"_ Akihito did his best to sneer back. It was oddly ginger, somehow. "I- I could fight you."

Sanae wanted to run her hands through her own scalp. _'Are- are you kidding me. Kanako- who the heck'd you call. Literally-... no one super useful's shown up yet…!'_

Raltan had a giggle. "Fh- pft- _fight me?_ Hold on, now…!"

Akihito glared around the room, clenching his fists, before coming up to Eleria. "Ee-... even _you."_

Casually, Eleria pressed her index finger into his forehead, and pushed him back.

"Wh- ow!" He fell onto his butt- but then his oversized broadsword got in the way, and made him fall onto his side instead. And, because it was really heavy, he tugged against it, rolling across the ground and spectacularly eating shit somehow. _"Nrgh!"_

'_Holy shit.'_ Sanae wanted to cry. _'No~...'_

...Raltan had a slowly growing smirk, as he panned his gaze around the room. "Did-... did anyone else see that? I- was I the only one who saw that...?"

Sanae looked up, and to the right.

There were now fifteen green drones in the air. The air was starting to become red with menacing, floating red dots. _'I'm not sure-... if this makes up for him.'_

"So, um." Sanae looked up at Kanako. "...Are- are you running low on faith, Kanako?"

Kanako jerked her head back, as if offended. "Wh- what? ...What makes you say _that."_

"You couldn't even get _Marisa."_ Sanae held out her arms. "Marisa would've _killed_ to be here. She couldn't even be _asleep_ right now, she's a night owl!"

Kanako leered back. _"You _were the one who told me to broadcast an immensely vague job offering, Sanae. You didn't say they had to fight _one hundred thousand American soldiers."_

Rachel sat up. "One- _hundred thousand-"_

Eleria's eyes lit up. "Oh, _hell yeah!"_

Raika's eyes boggled. "Wh- _aa-"_

Akihito shat himself. "What…"

Raltan tilted his head back. "Y'know- it didn't fully register earlier… but this's gonna be a _pretty interesting-"_

"_One hundred thousand!" _An absolutely awestruck voice, that of a full grown man, boomed from the doorframe. "Servants of _gangster computer god communism!"_

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Francis E. Dec Esquire!_

DAMAGE - DEBUFFER - SUPPORT

This grey-haired, European man marched into the room, and knelt down to help Akihito up. _"Stand u~p, young man!"_

Eyes wide, Akihito accepted his offer out of pure shock, and he hefted Akihito onto his feet with both arms. "Wh- ah…"

Francis had a large, boxy brown bag on his back. He was clad in an uneven suit, not entirely properly fixed onto his body, with variant buttons properly faceted.

"Open your eyes!" He preached to all. _"See,_ the skull! The part of _bone_ removed!"

Rachel got back into standing, before he stepped past her, so he wouldn't help her up.

"The _American_ computer god _servants_ are coming!" He propped one leg onto a table, shaking it. "Behind their heads- their _eyes!_ Chips implanted into the _skull-_ brainwashing them! With _Frankenstein Radio Controls!_ Even you and me! Caught, in this _low down, dirty commie computer god maa~dhouse!"_

...Rachel approached Sanae, keeping close to her. "Um…"

Beaming at everyone's mouth-ajar awe, he turned to the growing audience of piercing red drone eyes, and held up both arms. _"Behold!_ For I, Francis E. Dec Esquire, until my _undetectable extermination,_ shall fight low and high, _hell or high water,_ against the dishonest, politician, communist computer god _Frankenstein _soldiers!"

The drones coincidentally emitted an echoey, hollow hum as if responding, almost making Sanae giggle.

"They beat me _bloody-_ locked me up in _chains, _for _weeks- _even _years!_ Forced me into _enslaved poverty!"_ He come up to Eleria, eyes wide. "But I know the _truth! _And that is _why,_ why I tell you- why _I_ hand you the _keys to the entire Human race- _the entire _Youkai race- _even _gods-_ all _bow_ to the deadly, undetectable _assassination!_ I hand you all the keys- to saving the _planet_ from _deadly, computer god-"_ He inhaled. _"Communism!"_

Sanae had an open-mouthed, happy smile of awe. _'We're in trouble.'_

"Wh- what the fuck…" Raltan wasn't sure _what_ to think. "Pft- hehe- haha~!"

Akihito was caught by a fey mood of bitter aggression. "Nnh, shut the fuck up…"

"Oh, boy." Eleria gave her eyebrows a flourish, looking around idly. "...Looks like a full house tonight."

Raika said nothing, for there was nothing more that could be said from her, she was sure. There was nothing that could've been _added._

Rachel turned to Sanae. Sanae turned to Rachel. Sanae looked up at Kanako.

Kanako's gaze was vacant.

'_We… we are in trouble.'_ Sanae reaffirmed to herself. _'Big trouble.'_

Francis moved up amidst everybody, with a glad but slightly unhinged smile. "I _fully applaud_ the efforts of mankind's finest heroes! I-"

"Hold on, hold on, just-..." Sanae talked over him.

"_I applaud_ all the brave men and women gathered here today! To stop _gangster, low down- weaponized flashlights- computer god frankenstein-"_

"_Francis!"_ Sanae felt awkward yelling at him, but it really had to be done. "Just-... I- I'm um, I'm sorry, but can you-... be quiet?"

Sanae felt her spine churn, as even a man such as he had the awkward revelation of someone present not being entirely enthused or in agreement with his energy. "...Well! If- if I must. But, this is important! Do you understand-"

"_Yes."_ Sanae was immediately thinking of solutions to this situation. "Just-... just- hold on."

Turning around, Sanae beheld the cloud of forty or so red-eyed drone things. _'What the heck.'_

She hurried up to Raika, and spoke quietly. "Ca- can you, um, make a tiny thing that _silences people_, maybe."

"I-... I don't know." Raika smiled awkwardly, as if somewhat knowing. "Um… nn- not to be mean, but-... should we just, turn him away, maybe?"

Eleria was behind them. "We could just let him _die._"

"Wh-" Sanae hesitated for a moment- "Nn-"

"_No!"_ Rachel refused this. "Even if he's-... him, he's a human villager! We'd be no better than the-... the youkai!"

"Ye- yeah." Sanae shook away her own doubt. "I mean…"

"Suit yourselves." Eleria had a small smirk.

"Dude-" Raltan browsed up to them, and gave the growing death cloud of kamikaze bots a brief look of caution. "He's _cool,_ dude."

"We shouldn't let-... so- someone else die." Akihito decided, arms folded when he lumbered up to the rest of them. "Death is serious."

"Is it." Eleria gave him a plain stare.

He glared back at her. "...Screw you."

"No thanks." Eleria stared up at the drone cloud… "When you're older."

"I-" Akihito reached for his broadsword on impulse, to strike back. Except, it was so heavy, that there was absolutely no quick way of doing that, so he just kind of awkwardly drew it, before putting it away again.

'_I've never cringed more in my entire life, dang it…'_

There were now fifty kamikaze droids in the air above. There were so many, they were leaving the confines of the windmill, and patrolling the airspace above it, a sea of red stars and dim ovals filling the darkness

"Okay-" Sanae had enough of this. "Do- do we _really_ need the flying death robot machine to be on _right now…?"_

"Aah-" Raika reached into her pockets, before pausing. "Um."

Sanae slouched. "If there's no off switch, I'm gonna off _you."_

Raika snorted. "I-... I never _needed one…?"_

Sanae's posture did not change.

Raika held up a finger. "There-... there _is…_ a _self-destruct-"_

"You're gonna do more damage to this windmill than the Americans." Sanae monotoned. "Alright- when we're _actually defending,_ you're gonna put all your spooky stuff _outside_ the windmill. Like- on the _lawn._"

"Alright- look!" Raika held up her hands. "I'll just- disarm all of them… ma- manually."

A newly created kamikaze drone raised into the air behind her, letting out an echoey thoom kinda noise for no explicable reason, making her jump slightly.

"You better start on that factory thing!" Sanae had a hard, enduring grin. "What're we going on now, a _hundred…!?"_

Raika hurried up to the factory. "Um- okay! Just- don't-... don't _jump,_ or _fly_, or anything, for the next couple hours…"

'_Oh, man…'_

_3D PAINT'S NEW GROOVE_

Since time was of the essence, Sanae had the crew travel to the Grand Bullfighting Ring in Okinawa, Japan that evening.

With the whisper and majesty of the natural winds, Kanako's form washed into existence amidst the arena.

From a passing gale behind her, the company of the goddess's chosen heroes emerged from the wind's wrappings.

Rachel promptly fell flat on her face, her balance betrayed by the wind's spinning motions. "Nngh- mmh…"

Raltan walked cautiously from the twister that deposited them, finding his balance. "Oo-... okay."

Eleria, who had no problems, held onto Raika, who now looked too dizzy to stand. "Oo-... ooh…"

Francis marched confidently out of the wind, his hair billowing in the breeze, as he stood at full power to take on dangerous, insidious computer god communism.

Sanae stared at the deposited heroes, having been immune to the wind's pulls herself. "Um. Are we- forgetting…?"

Kanako's brow twitched. "Ah. Mmh. ...No~."

"Wa- wait, we _did."_ Sanae quickly realized. "That- freakin' kid, Akihito was it?"

"Ah." Kanako's brow twitched again.

With a thud nearby, Sanae turned. Akihito was deposited face-down beside her. _'...Well, for whatever he's worth. Maybe Kanako was right...'_

On that note, Sanae looked around.

'_Where's this Jo Amon guy? I- kinda just wanna go to bed, to be honest… why's this happeni~ng?'_

Then, Kanako turned around in the air. Facing opposite of the direction she faced the party, she gazed down. "Oh. There you are."

"Hmh." Jo Amon was there. "Cannot sneak up on a goddess, I see."

"Not a goddess of _the wind,_ no." Kanako's stare was plain. "Who are you, again?"

The black-clad Jo Amon gave her a single nod. "Jo Amon."

As the party faced him, taking in his figure, Kanako spoke again. "Yes, that helps so much. _Who_ are you, I mean. What do you _do._ What's the _point_ of this."

He smiled. "My clan has recently caught wind of this magical land, called Gensokyo. When we learned about it, and its barrier, we did all we could to amass an army fitting of taking on the ultimate challenge. It was a breath of life for our clan."

He pointed at Sanae. "And our first target is _you,_ Sanae Kochiya!"

"Wh- why not Reimu, or Marisa?" Sanae grinned sheepishly. "Why not _anyone else…?"_

"You were a mysterious phenomena we decided to investigate." Jo Amon began to stroll, walking to the side as if attempting to look clever about this. "Years ago, Sanae Kochiya vanished from a Japanese high school. Many of her peers thought she was murdered, had committed suicide, fell in with a bad group… but the numbers never added up."

"What numbers." Sanae was bamboozled.

"You do not need to know." Jo shrugged off the question. "But, after careful investigating, we discovered _exactly_ where you went, and what you had become. We learned of the existence of gods, monsters, magic and spirits."

He smirked. "As such, it is my mission to become stronger than all of your gods and monsters combined. To that end, I'm starting with you, mythical harbinger of miracles, Sanae Kochiya!"

"Are-... are you _serious…?"_ Sanae was weirded out. "Why can't you just go, like-... fight dragons, or something?"

Jo shook his head. "We already have, and we won."

'_Wh- what.'_

"Can you say the same? Only time will tell." Jo folded his arms, and stood broadly. "We have influence all over the entire world, and only Gensokyo stands in our way! Can your land withstand the combined might of all of Earth's most powerful entities!?"

"...We- well, let's fight, then!" Sanae was ready to rumble. "I'll take you on!"

Jo exhaled, and shook his head. "No, no. That would simply be a duel, and I'm already sure I'm far stronger than you. No, I wish to test the might of your land. This is why I called on you _and_ your finest warriors."

'_This sucks.'_ Sanae felt- she _knew_ she'd made a mistake. _'I wanna do-over…'_

"To that end," Jo held up a finger. "I will issue your construction project challenges I have personally bested on my own before. They are the greatest, furthest perils planet Earth has to offer, the harshest of the elements, and even of the space beyond this world."

'_Gods, why. If he's not bluffing, this is gonna be the stupidest stuff ever. Even Reimu doesn't hafta put up with crap like this…'_

"You will undergo _six waves_ of trials." Jo decided. "It will _only_ be six, before myself and my brothers. That should adequately test endurance _and_ skill."

"What if we just _lose._" Sanae supposed. "What happens then?"

"Then, the Amon clan must continue to hold its title as the strongest on planet Earth." Jo nodded. "As for you, you'd probably be dead."

"Oh." Sanae snorted. "Cool."

Jo propped his arms on his hips. "Each wave of trials will be adjusted according to your warriors you've chosen. After which, the final wave will be me and my brothers."

"Aren't they the strongest warriors?" Sanae smiled awkwardly… "So, wouldn't you _not_ need to adjust anything?"

He shook his head. "If every challenge allowed one warrior to excel for the others, our time would be wasted when we finally duel, and you crumble in seconds flat. As such, every challenge must cover a variety of weak points. Fortunately, we of the Amon clan are master strategians."

"This is the stupidest thing that's ever happened." Kanako monotoned. "No matter what you piddly humans send, I could clap it away with a wave of my hand."

Jo smiled. "I expect to be impressed, then!"

Turning away, he held an arm out. "Six hours! We will attack your windmill next to the Human Village of Gensokyo!"

...Then, he plainly walked away.

Eleria hummed. "Mmm. This's better than I thought…"

"Wh- where _are_ we." Akihito was horrified.

A loud _zip_ echoed throughout the arena. Francis unzipped his huge, square travel bag.

Inside was a great rifle, fashioned from PVC and a typewriter. Black ink seeped from its parts, staining his hands, and dripped openly from his open bag.

"There is only _one answer to communism!"_ Francis bellowed. _"War!"_

Then, aiming forward, he unloaded a blotchy stream of black, by slamming his hands on the keys of his typewriter.

"Wh-" Jo flinched, and began running away instead of walking, as the black ink soaked his suit. _"Rgh! How dishonorable…!"_

'_What the fuck is going on.'_

...Rachel idly spoke up, once everyone else grew quiet, and the stream of black paint bolts ended. "At- at least he didn't uh, _hit back."_

"I guess." Sanae would've loved to just jump him now and get this over with. "Well… I guess we'll go back, and like… _prepare._"

"Le-" Raika looked like her adrenaline was spiked just listening to that conversation. "Leave- i- it to- to me, Sanae! I'll-... I'll defend us- with my inventions!"

'_Um. We'll see…'_

'_But… where would we even start? What kind of preparing can we even do?'_

"Lady Kanako…" Sanae looked at her goddess. "Um… I- I don't wanna put all the work on _you,_ but- what can we _do_ in _six hours…!?"_

Raltan snapped his fingers. "Eat those _pancakes."_

"Sl- sleep…" Akihito was nodding off, somehow.

"Warm up on local wildlife." Eleria smiled at her own idea...

"You still have most of the funds for the construction project, yes?" Kanako asked.

Sanae nodded. "Uu- um, yeah. Like-... like, we've still got a hundred thirty thousand yen left in this month's budget."

"If our foe is as mighty as he makes himself out to be, you'd do well investing in expensive defense items." Kanako smiled, and nodded in turn. "Elemental resistances for your go-to outfits. Additional useful attributes for your weapons. ...Guns. Healing items."

...This felt familiar to Sanae.

It was like playing a video game. Preparing a party in an RPG, building her base in an RTS…

"Alright!" Swallowing her annoyance, anxiety and tiredness, Sanae saluted her goddess. "Thank you, Lady Kanako!"

"Just ask if you need any more help." Kanako smiled down at her. "Me and Suwako are here for you. Don't forget this."

"I won't." Sanae was more confident now. "...I'll turn these kinda sorta lame random people into dragon slayers!"

The game had begun.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Sanae Kochiya!_

LEADER - BUFFER - HEALER

_3D PAINT'S NEW GROOVE_

author's note

dude im sorry i havent updated _three d paint's new groove_ in awhile dude

my computer broke and we had to buy a new one, it was an intel core pentium HDR 6500 laptop but i got tripped on the like L shaped staircase in our house and it went off the balcony edge

fuckin rip ugh

but it at least looks nice outside

i made two chapters by the way


	3. Don't stick toasters in bathtubs

Sanae only slept for two hours, waking up very quickly to get things done.

"Al- alright…" She exhaled, upon arriving back at the windmill. She'd spent the past couple hours racing around Gensokyo, buying supplies, charms, fitting weapons and other such things.

Her thick backpack made a chonky noise when she placed it down on the table in the shattered windmill's midst. She'd bought at least ten Mega-Potions, and a host of varying armaments that'd fit some of the party.

'_Let's see. What's everyone doing…?'_

Raltan was passed out on a tubby bag of something-or-another, along one of the room's sides.

Rachel was on her side on the couch, lumpified. Raika sat next to her, also asleep, a tiny rotating gun placed on the couch arm next to her.

Eleria was leaned against a wall, her spear stabbed into the floor, but she herself was asleep. It seemed she'd adopted some sort of pose that was supposed to make her at least _look_ awake.

Francis however did _not_ sleep. He was seated somewhere beside the counters, his leaking ink weapon placed aside himself as he seemed to work on something…

...Sanae blinked, and looked under the table where she sat down the backpack.

Akihito was under it, defeated somehow. _'What-... well, if it works.'_

'_We only got two more hours, if even. Everyone doesn't have time to get a full sleep…'_

Rubbing the sleep from her own eyes, Sanae cautiously stalked up to where Francis was doing his thing…

There were clicks of metal, as he attempted to piece broken brass pieces together. They were fragments of construction equipment and windmill metal.

'_What- is he-... well, it's fine.'_

Moving up to her backpack, Sanae took a good look at the brightening, pre-dawn sky. It was the awkward between period of night, where dusk was long gone, but dew was setting, and the sky was beginning to brighten vaguely.

Opening the backpack, she took some items from inside.

A new gohei for Rachel, and a leaflet of paper on how to use different charms. _'I don't know how much this'll help, but…'_

_Rachel Heartway - Gohei_

_The Girlscout_

\+ Charms restore ammo, mana and metal of allies struck.

\+ Increases the power of healing and buff items.

\- Charms do 30% less damage to foes.

Finding a good smith for swords wasn't easy, both this late at night, and in Gensokyo's overworld. So, for Raltan, Sanae found a really big, eternally frozen fish. _'I- I mean… I tried hitting stuff with it, and it's really hard, so…'_

_Raltan Vargas - Greatsword_

_Frozen Tuna_

\+ Boosts the power of Ice skills.

\+ May cast Blizzara with physical attacks.

\+ Boosts Magic Defense by 30%.

\- 50% increased damage from fire.

For Raika, she had gone to Eientei and purchased two blueprints. One was from the kappa, the _Dispenser,_ and the other was from Eientei itself, a _Moa_. _'Something other than infinite kamikaze sentry drones, please.'_

_Raika Saino - Building_

_Dispenser_

i. Supplies ammo, metal, faith, mana and health to allies.

_Raika Saino - Building_

_Moa Manufactory_

\+ Drones get non-elemental, energy projectiles.

\+ Drones get energy shield technology.

\- Drones are bipedal, and cannot fly.

\- Drones no longer explode in close proximity.

Eleria seemed already strong, so instead of getting her a new weapon at this point, Sanae got her a fluffy red bra.

'_...I mean, look. It was the only thing Alice had done at- at three in the morning, that had a fifty percent boost to fire, ice and thunder resistance.'_

_Eleria - Female Armor_

_Red Magi Bra_

\+ 50% Fire, Ice and Thunder resistance.

Akihito she didn't think would honestly be useful in any capacity, so she got him an enchanted helmet from the Human Village guard. It was a green-colored samurai helmet, which was said to grant morale to the wearer in times of great peril.

'_This should keep him from getting his head blown off, or something.'_

_Akihito Kawanda - Hat_

_Village GrandStander's Helmet_

\+ Randomly gives the wearer Morale moment to moment. If the wearer's health is good, when hit by an attack that would instantly kill them, they survive within an inch of their life.

\+ Boosts physical defense by 10%.

\+ Boosts _Crit_ resistance by 33%.

Sanae clapped her hands. "Aa-... alri~ght, everyone! Wake u~p!"

...Kanako materialized behind her, and slowly held up her hands to clap them.

Like thunder, when her hands came together, the whole windmill shook, and everyone jumped.

The table thumped. Akihito hit his head against the underside of it, and got defeated again. _"Uu-_ nnh…"

"Wh-" Rachel shot up into sitting up. "Woah!"

Raika quietly snapped her eyes open, not outwardly reacting to the sheer volume and surprise. Instantly, she felt the wet kiss of dew on the furniture around herself…

"Nnh…" Raltan moaned from the bag he sat on. "Dh-... why…?"

Eleria's eyes blinked open.

"...We gotta get _ready!"_ Sanae wasn't sure how else to put it. "In- in _two hours…_ we'll be fighting things, I guess!"

Eleria went back to leaning against the wall. _"Two_ hours? Mmnh…"

"Ooh-... oh…" Rachel rubbed the sleepies from her eyes. "Oka~y…"

Raika yawned, sitting up slowly, her body lethargic…

Then, something chugged to life in the corner of the room. Sanae's brows twitched. _'Um.'_

Francis stood, hefting up his brass pipe typewriter cannon. "Nn- hnnh…" It was a heavy, dirty chunk of metal. A huge motor made up its base, with a makeshift, messy keyplate on one side for him to slap his fingers on.

Three huge metal pipes extended from the front.

When he pressed the keys, high-pressure, black blasts of steam shot out, pushing him back. _"Nnh- _ooh…!"

Sanae's jaw slowly dropped. _'What- the fuck…'_

_Francis E. Dec - Typewriter Annihilator_

_The Copper Cannon_

\+ Ink becomes deadly steam instead, doing more raw magical damage than just ink.

\+ Debuffs enemy accuracy by 30%.

i. Ink steam deals 50% fire, 50% water magical damage.

\- Ink steam doesn't leave heavy ink on foes, reducing overall debuff capability.

"Alright- what the fuck…" Raltan was awake now, jolted into alertness from the loud roar of Francis's big metal thing.

Akihito crawled out from under the table, his eyes uneven and drowsy. "Oo-... ow…"

Coming up to the table, Rachel sleepily looked over the random stuff Sanae had laid out. "Mmh… what's all this?"

"Equipment, and stuff." Sanae rationalized it. "I was runnin' around, getting us ready for um… for _war._ I couldn't get _a lot,_ but this stuff should be like… better, or at least different, than what you guys currently use."

She handed the new gohei to Rachel. "I, um… bought this."

'_I bought it from the Artificial Hakurei Project, but don't worry about it…'_

Grabbing onto the gohei, Rachel gave it an airy look. "...This-... this feels _weird."_

"It probably does." Sanae agreed. "It lets your talismans help allies, but they aren't as useful as your normal, full-offense ones."

"My charms, you mean…" Rachel didn't tend to call them talismans. "I'll um, hold onto it. I can switch the stuff I use really easily, so I can just… hold onto it _and_ my regular one."

...Coming up to Akihito, Sanae wordlessly put the helmet on him, while he felt at his own stomach for some probably not great reason.

"Wh-..." He was confused, for a moment, before moving to adjust it.

'_Went well.'_ Sanae hurried to the next person.

"So, um." Coming up to Eleria, Sanae dangled the red bra on her fingers. "...Loo- look. I know this's gonna sound _weird,_ but you're gonna hafta put on this bra! It gives you elemental resists!"

Eleria vaguely stared down at the somewhat fluffy, royal red bra. She felt at the fabric, and smirked. "You pick the design yourself?"

"...Nn- no." Sanae's expression was small. "I'm um- it was all she had…"

"Really." Eleria seemed skeptical, as she felt at her own grey, indescribably anime top.

"I- I don't wanna make an _assumption-..._" Sanae gave her a level stare. "But- _please,_ don't change here. Thi- this place has a basement."

"Oh, really?" Eleria didn't know that. She looked around, and saw the built-in stairway that lead down into the foundation.

"There's- a basement?" Raltan blinked slowly. "The fuck. Does it, like, have a _bed?"_

Sanae snorted. "Well, uh, no. More bags of seeds and stuff, and like… construction plans."

"That's gay…" Raltan returned to being half-dead on his strange sack. "What'm I sitting on?"

"Flour." Sanae moved to address Raika next, as she remained loosely on the couch where she slept.

From the table nearby, Sanae picked up the small booklets and schematics on construction. They were both in different styles, but she was sure Raika could use _one_ of them.

"Hey." Stopping before her, Sanae set them down. "Um. Do you know how to make attack drones that _aren't_ kamikaze robots?"

"...Um." Raika looked at the tiny gun that guarded her as she slept. "I mean- I haven't _needed-_"

"Read these schematics. Like, please." Sanae insisted. "Your super explosion death bots are great and all, but like-... _something more conventional…_ might be like, okay too."

"That's-" Raika was awkward. "I- I mean-... stu- studying schematics, in such a short time-"

"At least study the _dispenser_ thing." Sanae insisted. "It'll be something you can build that supports the rest of us. And- remember, _put it outside._ Ideally, we wouldn't be _going inside_ during the fighting."

...Looking around, then up at the dim, nearly ethereal morning sky, she nodded. "I'll- do my very be- best… but-..."

"We- we won't be in huge danger, right?" Raika was still in vague disbelief. "Like-... do- do we have to fight? A lot? Will we be getting hurt? I'm-... I- I don't know…"

"Um." Sanae wasn't sure what to say. "...You- probably won't be in too much danger. If you stick near your factories and stuff, and near that dispenser thing, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"...Okay." Raika seemed to like this better. "But- it's like… it sounds like we'll be fighting a _war._ I- I almost killed a youkai, this one time, but… I've really been trying to use danmaku."

...Sanae pursed her lips. "We- well… if we _do_ fight, and there's a lot of action, um, don't feel bad. You're just defending yourself."

'_That, and if these are foreigners, then it really doesn't matter what happens. It's a little bad of me to think of fighting this way, but… one hundred thousand Americans…!'_

Sanae ran over the party in her mind. Akihito had his _helmet thing,_ Raika had her new blueprints, Eleria had her _bra…_

She looked over at the bag of flour, where Raltan was about to pass out again.

Hefting up the big, frozen tuna, Sanae romped up to him.

After plainly staring at him, she just plopped it into his lap.

Ice exploded out from the frozen tuna on impact, spraying into Raltan's face and body. _"Wh- dude- aagh!"_ He writhed atop the bag, feeling at his face, body locking up from the cold.

'_At- at least I woke him up!'_

With that, she looked around again, seeing if she gave everyone everything.

'_...I think we're just about ready to start setting up outside. Um. Hmm.'_ Now that she thought about it… _'I should've gotten everyone bottles of water, or something.'_

"La- Lady Kanako…" Sanae spoke up.

Then, Kanako was there, in the air beside her, legs crossed. "Yes?"

"Could you get us all… some drinks, maybe? Some water?" Sanae bowed at her. "It- it's the only thing I'll ask you for. I- I don't have the time to run to the village. We only have two hours left."

Kanako snorted. "Mmh, fine. Glasses, or outsider-style bottles?"

"...Bottles." Sanae was decisive. "Bottles will probably be best."

Rachel ran up to Sanae, and flicked her hand out.

There was a tiny, ticking sort of noise, as three charms gently whapped into Sanae's face. They dissipated, being danmaku bullets.

"Wh-..." Sanae scrunched her features, stepping back. "Are- are those your new charms?" They were cookie-like in color, but they were still charms. "They still hurt kinda…!"

"Do they?" Rachel grinned, and looked down at the pine wood gohei, _The Girlscout._ "They're uh… they're supposed to _heal_ you guys, right?"

Sanae shook her head. "The seller told me they restored _mana_ and _ammunition._"

"But, they still hurt you…!" Rachel reeled her arm back, and tossed more.

Three more charms whapped into Sanae's face, dissipating into danmaku energy. Looking encumbered, Sanae continued. "Maybe _don't_ use the danmaku versions."

In response, Rachel slapped three real charms onto Sanae's face.

Sanae felt a brief boost of energy, the holy magic channeling into her. "...Aa- ah, there we go."

'_It left a cookie-like taste in my mouth, even. That's… huh.'_

"I can still _hit _the other people like this, right?" Rachel held out the cookie-brown charms, and focused on the encouraging, English memos about teamwork inscribed on them. "If I can't zip around and annoy them… like..."

"I _think_ so?" Sanae really wasn't sure. "You can draw your other gohei really easily, right?"

"Oh, yeah!" Rachel realized she didn't really _have_ to choose. With a flash of light, she had her regular, holy gohei out again, and her charms shifted in color, becoming the offkey Hakurei-esque ones she typically wielded. "Awright!"

...Finally, Sanae centered her gaze on Francis. _'...I, um didn't get him anything, because I wanted to save money, but…'_

Stomping into the room's midst, he clutched the copper and brass typewriter annihilator _thing_ tightly, knuckles white.

...When Sanae came up next to him, he gave her a smile of immense confidence, and gestured his chin up at the night sky. "Do you see them?"

Sanae regretted replying already. "...See- see what?"

"The new, _fake_ starry sky." He seemed concerned, that she didn't see it too. "The computer god-generated, fake, produced, _fraudulent_ stars. We live in a dome, housing _trained, parroting puppet assassins-_ all set up to operate our _maximum insanity prison-"_

"Yeah, same." Sanae walked away. "Mood."

'_Yeah, I think we're ready.'_

_3D PAINT'S NEW GROOVE_

The sky was a deep blue. There was one hour left before the assault.

Outside the windmill, the seven had navigated up to the open, empty riverbed. It was dug to eventually be run through the village and filled with flowing water, but at the moment it was empty.

A crane sat in the waterless trench, partially smashed into pieces.

Akihito stepped up to it, sword tightly attached onto his back. He didn't have a sheath, just a leather band to kind of hold it there, so it flopped around a little.

...Cautiously, he moved to poke the crane-

Then, a roaring, terrible creak of metal. Akihito fell back, yeling. "Wh- _aaa~h!"_

With the rending of dirt, the crane ever so slightly tilted near him, and he compacted on the ground as if waiting for death. "Wh- _help!_ Some-..." Quickly, he realized the crane wasn't going to fall. He'd just disturbed it from whatever precarious tilt it had been trapped in.

Rachel floated down into the trench with him, having heard his yells. "Wh-... what're you even _screaming_ about."

...Akihito, the genius he was, decided to conceal his source of fear. "I-... I don't know." He had to be strong, he knew, and strength meant not _being_ scared, or so he thought. "I just got surprised…"

Rachel's expression was slightly jaded.

Raika skidded down the side of the trench, into the inside of it. "Um…" She wasn't sure if she should say anything to the other two who were already here…

Akihito turned to her. "Wh-... what're _you_ doing out here? You're not supposed to be here."

...Raika furrowed her brows. "But-... but Sanae said- it'd be good if we all set up on the front, here. This trench- next to the crane- should keep us protected and stuff."

Akihito shook his head. "Nn-... I- I think we should stay near the wind-"

Rachel clunked him on the back of her head with her gohei, semi-gently. "Shut _u~p._ Do you like- _actually_ know what you're talking about? I _heard_ Sanae tell 'er what to do. And I think Sanae knows a _little more_ than you do, mister yells-for-no-reason."

Akihito scrunched his face, trying to glower at her. "...Nn-... fine."

Stepping up to the edge of the trench, Raltan peered in. He had his almighty, six foot tuna lugged over his shoulder.

"_Hup!"_ Eleria leapt _over_ the huge trench. She landed hard on the other side. "Nnh…"

Akihito blinked owlishly, having watched that whole movement.

"Hey- Sanae!" Rachel waved Sanae over, when she was also hovering over the trench. "Whoever this guy is said he wanted us to settle up near the windmill again!"

Sanae dipped down briefly, only to sigh. "What? Wh- no, tell him to shut up."

...Akihito plainly stared at Rachel, who beamed at him victoriously. _"Shut u~p."_ She took immense, deliberate satisfaction in drawing out the command.

Tiredly, he adjusted the hat that was slightly too big for his hat, and stared down at the dim dirt.

"Dis- dispenser!" Raika announced her accomplishment. "Goin' up!"

The whining of metal was audible. From a fridge-sized box on the floor, a tubby, clumsy series of churning, unfolding boxes actualized from within one another. They stretched to half of a fridge's actual height, all stacked up.

A meter contained by a glass window lit up at the top, the reddish-brown light Raika favored lighting up the pit in the dim morning.

Using her hands, Raika helped quickly erect the dispenser, quickening its processes by pulling on parts to expedite their automated procedures.

Raltan stared at the way she interfered with its process oddly. "...You _supposed_ to be all handsy with it, as it like… does that?"

Raika paused briefly, but didn't look over at him, focused on 'unpacking'. "Uu-... mmh." It even took her a moment to formulate a response. "You- you can, I think. It's so slow- 'cause it can automatically entirely set itself up with provided metal… but, it takes a _long, long _time if you just leave it alone."

Once it was set up, Raika stepped back from it.

There was a soft clitter-clatter from within. Then, a slot near the bottom popped open. Paper charms, metal bolts and plates, and what looked like tube-shaped ink cartridges slid into the bin at the dispenser's bottom.

"It's…" Raika commented on it. "It's actually a really, _really_ genius design. It- it's kinda like a um, _3D Printer,_ if you know what that is. It makes a lot of different kinds of magic… it can make _itself,_ it can make all kinds of parts… it's pretty clear why the kappa are in love with this design."

"Wow." Rachel slowly grinned at the machine. "Wait…"

When she stepped up to it, it emitted a hum, and she suddenly felt her body pause. "Aa-..." Life, peace and vitality flowed into her from the device.

She thumped against it, having accidentally walked into it. "Wo- woah…"

"Only thing is that, like…" Raika crouched before the machine, and began taking from the lumps of metal it created. "Before it starts using mana to slowly churn out metal and other helpful things, its self-creation and stocking process uses the metal I carry on me. So, um… I- I'm kinda running on empty, now."

Raltan stepped into the range of the device's aura. It was almost dead next to it, necessitating he almost touch his side against it, but…

"Wh-..." He took a deep breath. His whole body felt good. It was like the continued dissatisfaction of merely existing was somehow gone, his whole body feeling like it had limitless energy, and his overall mood slowly ascending, as the machine's magic fed his overall energy.

The moment he stepped from the aura, it was like he came out of a bath. The warmth, satiating energy, the numbing stillness, it was all gone. But, it left him feeling vaguely refreshed.

"What the fuck." He was somewhat sorry he hadn't hung out around the kappa's valley more often, now. "The- the _kappa_ made this?"

"...Yeah?" Raika wasn't sure why he was so staggered…

"Why the fuck haven't I _ever_ seen this before." Raltan pointed at it. "I _need_ one of these."

Raika shook her head. "You really don't."

"...What's the catch." His interest began to sink…

"It has a limited energy span." Raika began. "It operates on battery."

It made health, faith, _metal and mana,_ but it could run out of battery and be totally useless. Raltan opened his mouth-

"Also, it operates purely on mana in the air do to much of its bidding." Raika followed up. "Additionally, the rate at which it supplies and refills motives is… it's really slow. _Really_ slow. Aside from the first surplus you get from when it crunches your own metal, it's… it's not efficient. So um, if it's in one place for too long, and eats too much mana, it just stops producing."

Raltan blinked-

"And, it had to undergo a change or two to be friendly to Gensokyo's environment." Raika kept going. "This design intentionally feeds mana back into the air when there's no one to refill the motives of. This has the side-effect of constantly using electricity."

Kneeling down next to it, unintentionally basking herself in its aura, Raika felt at the bottom of it. "...I- I made one or two extra batteries earlier. You can also feed it with your own mana, or charge the battery with electric magic, but..."

"I-" Raltan stepped back from it… "I think I'm good."

...Sensing the conversation was petering out, Raika got up and moved to place the base for the new constructor she read up about.

Coming up next to Akihito, she reached into her overalls.

This was going to be a stretch, she was certain. The Moa constructor was made of big, heavy parts, such that she needed all the metal she could to properly activate the shaping and generation.

Kneeling down, she placed two metal rectangles on the ground. They were reformatted, greenish bars, like the kind she used for the sentry drone construction.

Then, she placed the extremely half-assed lunar constructor blockette generation half-spheres on the floor.

Unlike lunar tech, they shone with the dim, reddish-brown light most of her devices emanated. Instead of using the impossible chrome of lunar technology, they were muddy iron and reworked brass from the broken windmill pieces around the clearing.

"Um." Akihito began to unravel his own genius. "Those-... those metal bar things, look really weak."

Raika wasn't even sure how to decipher the meaning of this comment. She just gave him a look, and went back about her own business.

"Like-" Sensing her abject disinterest, Akihito continued. "I- I could step on those, and like-"

"They're the _generators._" Raika was actually somehow slightly annoyed. "They, like, _make_… they make the actual parts I gotta use. I'm not a _metal smith,_ I can't just _have_ the parts I need all the time. I need magic and programmable devices to reshape the metal for me."

"But-" Akihito wasn't sure he understood. "How-... how, um-..."

Standing up, Raika went to go get more metal from the dispenser. She'd need scrap metal to start shaping the great parts required. Unlike her kamikaze sentry drones, these small Moa walker drones would require metal on-site.

Raika paused in the middle of the trench, sweating slightly. How was she going to get the defense up in time? _Could_ she get the defense up in time?

Then, everyone heard Kanako's voice on the wind. _"Thirty minutes remain. Get into your positions."_

The hairs on the back of Raika's neck stood on end. She needed more metal. Using local metal would use it up for good potentially, and might hurt their defense later. Waiting for metal might leave them without drone assistance midway into the assault.

"Gods-..." She stared at the comforting, brownish light emanated by the dispenser.

There was something peaceful, and routine about the pre-sunrise blueness of the land, combined with the gentle glow of evening light.

Meanwhile, Raltan swung his big fish around nearby. "Nn-... _nnh!"_ He gave it a _huge_ swung, arcing it through the air. The most strategy he needed to worry about was fish.

Rachel chilled out next to the dispenser, sitting down against it and staring up at the blue sky. "Mm-... _mmh."_

Eleria's neck cracked, as she stood facing the empty woods ahead, lance drawn and held ready.

Francis stood along the flank of the trench. While one side was defended by the huge, cratered crane, the other was barren and lead out into nothing. "Deadly, _mad gangster- communist-...!"_ He'd been placed there for two reasons.

One was that _someone_ needed to guard flanks consistently. The other, was that Francis wouldn't shut up, and if he was way off on the flank, no one would hear him too much. He'd just be some white noise.

"Are you gonna, um, set up?" Akihito asked Raika. "Why're you just _standing_ there?"

...Raika turned, and frowned at him. "I- I have to _wait for the metal_ to get synthesized…"

"Why not just pick some up?" He proposed, unknowing of her internal debate over the local metal and her reserves. "There's a lot lying around."

She huffed. "I-... I can't just- look-"

"I'll go get some." Akihito began to move-

"Hold _on!"_ Raika looked between the dispenser, where new metal was just made, and him. "Like-"

"What?" Akihito frowned at her. "We don't have a lot of time..."

Raika was starting to get a headache. "I- I can't explain, I just-..."

Akihito felt like it was time to make himself look cool. "What? What can't you explain? If-... if you can't explain yourself- how do I know why you're doing anything?"

Raika grimaced, facing him fully now, ignoring the metal. "Wh- be- because you won't _understand-_ and it'd take a lot of time-"

"But-..." This was Akihito's moment to make a decision. Would he press? Would he relent, and accept her perspective?

"But nothing." Akihito doubled down. "I think- I think _you're_ just bluffing!"

...Raika held her own head. "Ho-... how would I be _bluffing?_ Wh- you're-" She looked back at her dispenser, and the metal inside. Hurrying, she readjusted her priorities, and got the metal from inside of it, fitting it into her overalls.

"Because it's not that complicated!" Akihito ventured into asserting himself as an authority on the subject of engineering.

...It was at that moment he paused. He just now realized. He wasn't an engineer, and she _was._

Rachel stood up from next to the dispenser. "My _god,_ would you just _shut up._ You're like, making _me_ mad, and that's not like-... I don't even get mad!"

"But-" Akihito held up his hands. This would be tricky… as always. "But- I have to make sure-"

"What's goin' on, now?" Raltan just now really began paying attention to what they were doing.

"I- I think Raika's confused!" Akihito began to feel afraid…

Raika sighed, as she knelt down next to the Moa constructor, gauging how much metal she still needed to begin the construction…

"I think this guy's-... stupid!" Rachel pointed at Akihito. "If he just _shut up,_ she could do her things."

Raltan furrowed his brows, looking unsurely between everyone.

It was in this moment that Sanae hovered down, gaze marginally more cynical than a few hours before…

"_Ten minutes left."_ Kanako's voice blew across the trench. _"If you weren't ready as it was, now would be the time to be ready."_

"Alright." Sanae wanted to set things straight. "Rachel? Relax."

Rachel was about to get uppity. "Wha- why'd you- why start with _me-"_

"_Re. Lax."_ Sanae had it up to _here_ with party psychology. _"Relax._ Just go _sit down,_ and let _me_ yell at whoever I need ta yell at."

...Rachel awkwardly steps back, looking somewhat bitter, but she wouldn't argue with Sanae of all people.

Sanae centered her gaze on Akihito. "She needs the metal to upgrade crap. She knows more about metal and building than you do. You swing a sword. Shut the-... shut the _heck _up, and stop bothering her. Get outta this trench, too. You should be up with Eleria."

Akihito felt a twinge of annoyance. He'd ventured to this trench first to _be_ at the front, until the front was moved up to where he was. Now he was being told to go to the front, as if his proactiveness was lacking.

"But-" He needed to make this known. "I-... don't- don't think I-"

Sanae grinned hard. _"Yeah, uh huh._ C'mon." She pulled on his arm.

Akihito tugged back. "I'm- I'm _older than you!_ Don't think you can-"

"Come, _on!"_ Sanae's grin became very forced. "Don't-... don't _do this to me!_ We- we don't have _time_ for- for this-"

Rachel came up again. "I'll help you beat him up, if he's too stupid!"

"Guys-" Raika was worried. "Please-"

Raltan had a vague, open-mouthed look as he beheld the growing argument, as the world around them brightened.

"_Around corners trajection!"_ Francis's voice raised in the distance. "Of _deadly touch tarantula spiders!"_

Akihito's heart pumped. He pulled his arm back, trying to work it from Sanae's grasp.

Rachel came up, into his face. "Why're you _being so annoying-"_

Akihito punched her in the face. It was a punch he slightly reeled back, the intent obvious.

Sanae blinked, as Rachel staggered back, holding her own nose. "Nn-..."

'_Gods.'_ Sanae tied her previous record for surrealistically high amounts of cringing. _'We're doomed.'_

Glaring at Sanae, Akihito pulled back on his arm again, using his other arm to help.

That's when a loud, air-parting swing of a giant frozen tuna absolutely clobbered the side of Akihito's head. The impact was so hard his samurai helmet flew straight off.

Without even grunts, Akihito collapsed to the floor, head numb and gaze blurry.

'_...Nice.'_

Sanae sat down, elbows on her knees, as she sardonically took in Akihito's lumpified form.

"Fucking moron." Raltan shook his head, as he pulled back his absolutely massive tuna. "...You know. This thing's actually pretty alright."

"I'm glad." Sanae stared into the brightening morning sky.

Raika moved from the dispenser, coming up to Akihito's half-annihilated form. In the background, the huge, eight foot tall block that was the Moa construction factory had erected from the metal framing. The sides of it, and the base, emitted a vague, lunar blue light.

She pulled him by the shoulders up next to the dispenser, so he could recover.

'_...At least Raika's goal oriented.'_ Sanae figured. _'Man… I really wish Reimu or Marisa or someone half decent showed up…'_

"_You have one minute."_ Kanako's voice over the dawn wind was loud.

Eyes slightly moist, Rachel crouched next to the dispenser, too. Instantly, as she rested next to it, her increasing displeasure halted and began to pivot.

Sanae began to march up the side of the river trench.

'_Here we go~. It was nice knowing everybody.'_

Eleria was up there already. Seeing Sanae move, Raltan jogged to catch up with them.

"_Here they co~me!"_ Francis bellowed, as if sensing the presence of the oncoming foes. _"This is the universe's hope for a futu~re!"_

Then, Kanako's voice. _"They're coming. Protect Suwa Co!"_

'_In the name of the gods, Moriya and Yasaka…'_

Airily, Sanae stared over the edge of the trench, eyes wide.

Eleria twirled her lance around. "Come _get some."_

"_Five."_ Kanako counted down.

Raika held a fist close to her own heart, as the sun rose.

"_Four."_

Raltan marched up past Sanae, reeling his huge _Frozen Tuna_ around like a big bat. "Al~right…"

"_Three."_

"_You will not take us ali~ve!"_ Francis bellowed over the wind.

"Nnhm-..." Akihito whined.

"_Two."_

Rachel floated up past Sanae, finding her courage again. "For _Gensokyo~!"_

"_One."_

"In the _name of the gods!"_ Sanae reeled her gohei up. _"Moriya! Yasaka!"_

Floating into the air, Sanae's gohei floated before herself, twisting around amidst the wind.

"_Protectaga!"_ Sanae casted her magic. _"Aeroga Valley!"_

A loud, ear-shearing roar of golden magic washed over all seven party members. A myriad of triforces flared in the air, as the bands of protective, golden light shelled everyone.

The trees all around the clearing billowed, morning wind coalescing around the entirety of the Human Village's borders.

Spheres of wind enveloped everyone, flighty and pulsing with raw magical power.

"Wh- oah…" Raltan stumbled forward, briefly blinded by the raw flush of magic. The raw golden and wind visual clutter, warding magic coalescing all within his form.

This not being Eleria's first rodeo with being lathered in foreign buff magic, she leered ahead as she twirled her lance around, wind and rigid gold magic combining brilliantly along her lance's edges.

The Americans were here.

Brush, foliage and leaves rustled all ahead. Men with bazookas lurched from the shaded woods, heavy metal tubes slung over their shoulders as they marched to complete the destruction of the windmill.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Wave 1!_

_Bazooka Americans_

_Unarmed American Dudes_

_Wolves_

_Wolfmen_

_Robot Nitori T-0_

_Ancient Monolith_

Rachel floated into the air with Sanae, beholding the battlefield.

It was an absolutely staggering amount of men. There were well over fifty, maybe even a hundred. This was the small portion of an American army, she figured.

Although, there weren't men with soldier helmets. A small portion were in uniform villager outfits, the others in casual apparel from the outside world. Some carried no bazookas, lumbering forward with charisma.

Rachel wasn't sure what to think. They must have been really confident, to simply stroll out in jeans and colored shirts without sleeves. They walked as if they had nothing to fear.

Below, Eleria and Raltan were sizing up the absolute horde.

As the men emerged from the clearing, they found were surrounded on many sides. Their left and right flanks would quite promptly be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"Hey, kid." Eleria smirked at Raltan. "...Keep a good few steps behind me."

Raltan half wanted to protest, but he knew taking rockets wasn't necessarily healthy for himself, so he gave her a nod.

The two of them would have to be the full frontal offense, against at least a hundred American 'soldiers'.

Rachel flew ahead, her stock holy gohei held tight in one arm, as she kept in the sky over all the men.

"Be- be _careful!"_ Sanae trailed after her, in the air. "I don't kn- know if-" Her words were slightly lost on the wind, its volume greater than her voice.

Meanwhile, Rachel took in the reality of the absolute army. This was the most people she'd ever seen in one place, and they were all hostile. They were all foreign, and as she drifted in the sky overhead of them, they glared back up in turn.

Beaming with nervous energy, Rachel swiped her hand outward. Hakurei-esque needles flew from her arm sleeve, a spread of metal slits flying into the crowd below.

Unlike the true Hakurei variant, these had inert metal pins on their backs, and they didn't light up or glow like Reimu's did. Sanae supposed they must not have been explosives either.

The men started yelling, recognizing as their ranks began to be poked by the annoying rain of metal from above.

"_Cha~rge!"_

"_Go! Go! Go!"_

"_Tell 'em to- the dogs!"_

The roar of them beginning to run was staggering, Rachel's heart jumping in her chest as she beheld the sea of men.

The men in the front began shooting their rocket launchers. Ten glowing flares of amber streamed for Eleria's position, and she beamed.

Thundering, kabooming, the ear-shattering roar of smoke-splashing ordinance blew against her lance as she twirled it around. _"Rgh- hh-"_ Through her teeth, Eleria's breath was being pushed out by the force of rocket power against her body.

Blood and grey cloth fragments blew around herself, small holes being gored into her body by the concentrated power of RPG rounds.

Slowing down, the men at the front began to file back, to reload their tubes, while the men behind them filed forward to unleash another ten-rocket firing line.

"_Hey!"_ Rachel yelled overhead of them.

Small ticking sounds seeped into their ranks, as she darted straight across their front line, swiping her arm around and caking their firing line with ofuda.

"Little-" One of the men held up his rocket launcher, aimed up at her. _"Bitch!"_

Men began firing into the air, their rockets painfully slow and direct compared to danmaku. Rachel had little problem strafing past them, grinning as she chose to graze some of the rounds. "Nn- _hehehe-"_

Sanae's heart had a small attack every time she saw Rachel move to graze the RPG rounds. _'I didn't tell her they're not like danmaku oh fuck oh gods-'_

The clearing shook, Eleria deflecting rocket force with her spear, stomping in place to find her balance amidst the absolute blasts.

Then, the dogs came. Wolves strafed up the clearing, sprinting past the men's ranks faster than any human could move by far.

Heart racing, Rachel flew down into the men's ranks, spinning around amidst them-

An explosion, the flaring of blood geysering from their ranks. Sanae's jaw dropped, but when she saw Rachel emerge intact, she shuddered in relief. _'Did- did they just shoot each other by accident…?'_

Six dogs bounded up to Eleria, their maws open and seemingly beaming.

With one swipe of her now huge, ten foot long lance, Eleria sent them all flying. "Fuck- _o~ff!"_

Six more strafed around her sides. She looked between them, as two lunged to gnaw on her legs.

Raltan cleaved his huge tuna through the air, sending the three wolves on her right crumbling to the ground. _"Nnh- hnn-"_ The wolves whined.

Then, an explosion of icy chunks flew in the tuna's path, frost kissing wolf fur, before their spectacle came to a quick end.

A dog's growl, the left wolf still managing to sink his fangs deep into Eleria's left thigh. Letting one hand off her lance, she gripped its head hard, crushing its neck.

Raika was crouched amidst her Moa constructor, in the trench behind them.

"_Ee- a- a- a-..."_ One of her walker drones, a _Moa,_ looked around owlishly, making synthesized bird noises. It was basically a boxy energy rifle with legs, with a tiny camera on the front.

Two wolves bounded down from above, tongues hanging out as they dove straight in.

Raika raised her wrench, and stumbled further away. "Aa- _uhm!"_

The three moas there turned, pointing their gun heads at the wolves. _"Eee- ca- ca- ca!"_

Lunar blue light filled the trench, and Akihito looked around with wide-eyes.

"_Nn-"_ A wolf dove straight into a moa's multi-projectile stream of energy bolts.

Raika's jaw dropped, as the wolf's head disintegrated, burning blood exploding into the air like confetti.

Landing, the two remaining wolves recognized the threat, lunging to chew off the first moa's legs.

When their jaws snapped onto the metal limbs, they were repelled. A wireframe shield of energy flared to life, preventing their bites from even locking onto the metal.

The rhythmic thump of energy bolts rained down onto the rightmost wolf, and its flesh and organs were bored into with overwhelming force, a whole pond of blood splayed under it in a second.

The last wolf knew what was up. It did a U-turn, and bounded for the edge of the trench, before deciding running away along the distance of it was a better idea.

"_Ce- ca- ca- ca-"_ The moa squad let out clicks, like birds, and began to jog slowly after the wolf, as it sprinted away.

Raika's heart raced, as she stared down at the bleeding corpses. "Aa-..."

The factorial white noise, of the Moa Constructor behind her, came to a climax. Two huge metal molds parted, and with a flare of brownish light, a new one sauntered out. _"Ee- e- e- a…"_

Akihito sat up against the dispenser, beholding the bloody corpses.

"_Haa~h!"_ Francis yelled along the flank.

Pump, pump, pump. Black streams of steam roared from his creation's pipes, blowing into an overwhelming horde of wolves which were powering right up to him.

There were at least twenty wolves. They whined, snarled and barked, the plumes of steam getting ink and chemicals into their eyes and mouths. _"Rrgh- hn- arfh! Arghf!"_

As Francis staggered back from his weapon's weight, he beheld the horde, and even he knew that there was an overwhelming amount of vicious wolves here.

The fleeing wolf joined up with the pack, too intimidated to engage as it fled behind them.

That's when the three moa arrived. Their sensors picked up the valley of wolves, and began spraying haphazardly into the fray.

As the wolves were bored into by the energy, they bounded ahead, rushing all four of them.

"_Rgh-"_ Francis grit his teeth. Gold magic from Sanae's buffs protected his muscles, but the snapping teeth and tearing jaws of the wolves wore at his clothes, and blood flecked into the air.

The sparking of circuitry, one moa rushed by eight wolves. By the sheer force of them tackling it, its shield became mist, and they were able to pull on either leg, splitting it straight apart.

Francis unleashed a blast of black steam straight into a wolf's head, and it practically flew away in pain. _"Nnh!"_

Sanae looked down, beholding the wolves around Francis. _'The physical buff should keep him okay, and all those robots will overrun the wolves eventually. Um-'_

Rachel spun through the air, rapping her gohei against the back of a bazooka man's head-

A geyser of dirt. The man let his bazooka dip, and he shot beneath his own legs. Behind Rachel, a dirty gush of red and brown made a small storm of dirt in the air. "He- hehehe!" Since she was looking ahead, focused, she didn't notice the man just blew himself up.

One of the men turned, glaring at her, taking a reflex shot with his rocket launcher.

The canister flew straight into a different, black-haired middle-aged American man's face, and he glared straight back at it.

His skull was blown partially away, only his jaw and neck remaining.

'_Ho- holy shit…'_ Sanae fluffed up in the air, as she beheld the violence.

Twelve wolves behold Raltan with bated breath, not brave enough to approach after repeated failures.

A decisive _crunch._ Raltan cleaved the huge tuna straight down, smashing a wolf into the floor, and into nothing. _"Hrh-"_

The wall of teeth brushed into him, the wolves latching to his limbs in pasting, the golden light around him flaring. _"Agh- rrgh-"_ Jolts of pain, the sickening feeling of teeth in his own flesh felt throughout his body.

Raika sprinted behind Akihito, in the trench. _"Aa- aaa~h!"_

Akihito swung his broadsword short of many wolves. "Aa- _uuha-"_ Then, he was tackled to the floor.

Sanae dipped down, heart pumping. _'They're- they're in trouble! They're going around the side of the crane!'_

Amidst the streams of moa energy shots, keeping above a small sea of wolves, Sanae moved to help Raika.

Raika bonked an oncoming wolf on the head with her wrench, before another bolted into her, tackling her to the floor. "Aa- _nh! No-"_

Pinned down by the wolf, Raika writhed on the floor, the wolf's breath blowing past her neck. To stop it from going for her neck, she volunteered a hand to its maw. But, it knew not to focus on this. _"Help-"_

The spiralling of air parting, Sanae drew a pentagram in the air with her gohei, and kicked it forward.

The firework-like, glowing red pentagram soared into the wolf, and exploded into holy spectacle against it. "_Arfh!"_

Barks, snarls, and growls filled the trench. _'Yeah- this is bad…!'_

Sanae ascended from the trench, looking ahead.

"Ow-" Rachel soared past her, eyes wet. "Ow- ow-"

A man ran after her, a fist raised to the air. "Sick 'er! _Sick 'er!"_ Past him, two wolves took after her, one's maw full of red cloth and blood.

Raltan bolted up to him, and swung wide. The man flinched, seeing the oncoming, huge tuna.

Looking away from the concussing impact, Sanae focused on Eleria.

"_Rrh-"_ Eleria was staggering, rockets boring into flesh and sending splaying splashes of blood around herself on the grass. "_Ahuh- nnh-"_

"_Cure!"_ Sanae thrust her gohei into the air, focusing her magic on Eleria.

A wreath of healing energy wrapped around her form, the otherworldly chiming of bells ringing amidst the bomb blasts and dog barks.

"_Ahooo~!"_ Then, the howling of a wolf pierced everyone's hearing.

A wolfman- a humanoid, almost teen-looking man with wide, curling claws on his arms, arched back atop the crane.

"_Ow!"_ Akihito was being almost literally torn apart on the floor next to the dispenser, many wolves rushing his form. _"Fhuck- fuck- ngh- wha- nnh-"_

Raika shook, her whole body hot, as she stood between her buildings and Francis, amidst a more unpopulated part of the trench.

Francis had driven away the horde that came for him, one half-broken moa remaining. _"I will save!"_ He yelled, his body bleeding. "_The entire- human race!"_

She looked back at the crane.

The wolfman leapt across the trench, straight for her.

"Pl- _please-"_ Raika held up a wrench.

She was slammed to the floor, the wolfman landing atop her. _"Anh! _Aa-"

"Rhh-..." Despite his human features, the brown-haired man breathed out like a wolf, leering into her face. "You're-... fuckin' _cute."_

"Aa-" Raika blinked up at him. "Am- am I?"

He got off of her, and slipped his arms under her.

"Wh-" She felt herself be lifted off the ground. "Wha- what are you-"

He began to run, then leaping out of the trench.

Seeing the carnage in the trench, Rachel elected to _not_ sit by the dispenser, instead moving after the wolfman who was abducting Raika. "Ha- _hey!_ Put 'er down! _Hey!"_

"_Hey!"_ Sanae yelled out. "Ra- Raltan! Get your- get your ass back in the trench! We need help!"

He looked between Sanae, and Eleria, who was weaving around, whacking and launching men and wolves who came for her. "Rrgh-" She looked back at him. _"Go! _I'll-"

With a _woosh,_ she decisively arced her lance around. A man who came to grapple her lost his head, his neck effortlessly yielding to the swipe.

Raltan jerked his head back, and bolted for the trench. "Sh- sure…"

He stared down, into the trench. Into the sea of at least eighteen wolves, as they fought the robotic moa, a war which would last for eternity if undisturbed.

The wolves were too dumb to attack the moa manufactory, so it kept pumping out machines one at a time, only for them to kill one or two of their pack before they rended it apart.

"Aa-" Akihito was a blood puddle on the floor, his chest open as a wolf consumed his flesh. "Nn- aa-"

That's when Raltan skidded down the dirt trench side, and kicked his boot up into the wolf's side.

It rolled away, launched by his slide-enhanced kick. _"Nnhnh!"_

"Ho- holy shit!" Raltan beheld the hole in Akihito's stomach. "Woah!"

Needles fed into the back of the fleeing wolfman, Rachel chasing him down so he couldn't make off with Raika. "Put- put 'er down! You- _idiot!"_

He paused, letting her stab his back, readying himself.

Rachel flew close, to whack the back of his head with her gohei-

He spun around, his arm powering right into her gut brutishly, clotheslining her. _"Oouh-"_

Rachel flopped against the floor. She gritted her teeth, withholding tears. "Ugh… le- let her go!"

Ignoring her, the wolfman kept running. Once he made it to the woods, he wouldn't need to worry about any pursuit.

"Let-" Raika panicked, pushing against his body and his arms. "Let go! Pl- please-"

Sanae wasn't close enough to float up. But, she _was_ along the edge of the trench.

She looked back at Eleria. Around her, dead human men and wolves made a C-shaped valley of blood all around her.

Sanae zipped up along her carnage, and took a rocket launcher from the blood and corpses. _'Gods-...'_

Floating into the air, Sanae saw the wolfman moving for the brush behind the windmill. If he got away, Raika would be his. _'Yasaka-... Moriya-...'_ She prayed.

Aiming the launcher, taking note of the RPG round on the tip, and her arms shook as she aimed it.

'_Yasaka, use the wind- to guide my shot.'_ If she didn't hit him head-on and stop him, she'd already lose somebody. Someone would have been abducted, and it would have been her faut.

She pulled the trigger. Smoke and fire trailed behind it, the canister propelled through the air.

Just before he cleared the brush, the wolfman took pause.

A blast, dirt, sticks and leaves exploding into the air before himself. "Rrh-" Raika jumped in his arms, and he grunted, stepping back from the explosion. "What…?"

Sanae's heart sank. She'd missed, by just a little. _'No! Damn it! No…'_ Raika was lost.

Stumbling up from the floor, behind the wolfman as he paused, Rachel's head and limbs hurt, as she drew a single needle from her sleeves, and came up behind him.

She shoved the needle straight into his ass.

"_Rrh-"_ The wolfman froze. _"Rrgh- raa~gh!"_

He spun around in a near instant, eyes wide. He dropped Raika, holding his claws out wide to absolutely gore the little bitch that dared-

"Hh- _hey!"_ Rachel was overhead. _"Moron!"_

He looked up-

A flood of charms floated into his face, the holy paper immediately stinging his flesh. _"Ngh- _you _whore-"_

Raika thrust her wrench into his crotch. _"Huu- ugh-"_ He _was_ about to leap up and dunk the maiden above himself into the earth, but cupping himself took a sudden priority.

Amidst the charms, and the faltering wolf, Rachel thrust her foot down.

Her sandal met between his eyes, and he fell back onto his ass. _"Ough- nnh-"_

Raika began to run back for the trench. "Tha- _thank you! _Aa-"

Loud, thumping bangs rang out across the clearing. Raika was thrown onto her side, blood shooting from her body. _"Ahu- agh!"_

Rachel flew up towards her. "Wha-"

She looked to the right. Chunky, repetitious single shots pounded out from a mounted gun.

"_Hkh-"_ Rachel couldn't dodge linear sentry bullets. _"Hka- aulh-"_

A shuddering, shaking robot girl stood behind the bipod turret, an eternally grinning metal mouth smiling beneath two glowing blue eyes. It was a robot replica of a kappa, and she set up shop next to the windmill, a sentry gun mounted before herself.

"_Hehehe~!"_ Pointing at the girls, as they were shot up, 'she' laughed. _"Hehehuhaha~!"_

Sanae looked all around the battlefield, body shaking. _'This is fucked…!'_ Reaching into her pockets, she drew a Mega Potion.

Rachel and Raika crawled along the ground, too low for the turret to see them, bodies shaking as they left streams of blood on the grass as they went.

"Hhrh-..." The wolfman staggered up behind them. "Where do you _bitches_ think you're-

Sanae tossed her potion into the air, its magic dividing it into splashes of light, which moved for each party member.

Rachel heaved, her chest pumping. She moved to get alongside of the wolfman. If she was behind him, maybe the sentry would shoot him.

He thought she was trying to escape, and grabbed onto her shoulder, pulling her closer. "Hnnh- _gotcha_. Annoying little shit."

The sentry gun pumped again. "_Hk- kha-"_ The wolfman froze, lead pumping into his spine.

He saw Rachel's sickly grin, her face uneven, tears streaming down her face.

As he fell, he cleaved his arm straight down, punching her in the collar and sending her onto her butt. "_Ugh- uuhn…"_

Then, white light splashed onto Rachel's form, wet and awkward.

As she shook on the floor, bloody and body weak, the energy filled with with a hollow, unnatural energy, feeding her life. "Aa-..." This was the Mega Potion used by Sanae. It wasn't as satiating as the dispenser's warmth; it only made her realize how close she was to being unable to move, and this made her head hurt and limbs shake.

Her and Raika belly-crawled towards the trench again.

"Oh- _god!"_ Raltan ran out of the trench. "Why're so many _wolves man-_ holy _fuck!"_ Slinging his tuna around, the wolf that had its teeth on it went absolutely flying, spinning around in the air. "Wh- _woah!"_

There were two beeps. The sentry gun created by the robot replica of Nitori now had two chainguns atop it, instead of a single chunky barrel.

A roaring rotary was heard, and Raltan went flying back into the trench. _"Oouh- nngh!"_

"_Huhahaha~!"_ The synthesized laugh of the fake kappa echoed across the clearing.

From behind the robot Nitori, a beacon of blue light flared. Wolves were being teleported in from a pad behind her, coming around the sentry gun's flanks.

Sanae stared at the sentry gun from afar. _'That- stupid-... is that Nitori? Wait, no, it's a robot! Oh, gods!' _She saw and heard the sentry gun it was building.

Then, from the trench that Raltan had cleared out, help was on the way.

Fifteen moa marched out from the trench walls, the chirping of the robot birds audible as they registered the wolves and the sentry gun.

Rachel was trying to crawl with Raika, but got stuck. She looked back-

The wolfman held onto her ankle. "I'm- _takin' yhou_ wh- with me-"

"_Ee- ca- ca- ca- ca!"_ A moa shrieked, running up to him, and he glared up at it.

Three bolts pumped casually from its gun head, and into his head. _"Hkhh-"_ He gargled blood, eyes and face ruined. "_Haa- aa…"_

With a shiver, Rachel tore her leg from his grasp, and kept going.

The roar of dual gatling guns tore into the many moa, as they fired blindly in the sentry's direction.

A blue, neon pentagram of light came from Sanae, roaring down for the sentry gun. _'They- they have a teleporter back there, too!? Why!? She's teleporting in wolves…!'_

Energy pounded against the sentry gun, robot Nitori whacking away at it, fixing on new plates and feeding it new ammo with inhuman precision and efficiency.

"_You will not!"_ Francis yelled at the top of his lungs. _"Beat this poor man bloody toda~y!"_

Robot Nitori panned her gaze to the right, and saw him.

Plumes of black steam met her sentry gun, flooding its sensors with smog. It beeped rapidly, turning completely away from the battlefield.

After locking up, the robot Nitori sprinted for Francis, big wrench raised overhead, as she quietly and ominously advanced.

Three geysers of steam blew from his weapon, into the robot. It staggered in place, trying to whack against the smog-

Then, a bolt of energy from the moa horde met her head. "_Eee-"_ Robot Nitori's head exploded into a rain of sparks and electricity.

'_Ye- yes!'_ Sanae pumped a fist into the air.

Rachel and Raika made it back to the trench.

There were a lot of dead wolves inside. As the morning sun gladly beamed down on their plain, shade was cast on this wet, bloody mess. Raltan and the moa horde had been busy.

"_Yeaa~h!"_ Eleria roared along the side of the trench. The Americans had _run out_ of rockets to shoot, so they'd tried fighting her mano-a-mano. There was now a surreal amount of gore and corpses on the bank of the riverbed, the red even trickling down the walls behind the dispenser.

Shivering, Rachel stumbled up to the dispenser, her sandals and socks stained with foreign blood. "Aa-... ye- yeah-..." It was in this moment she realized, this perhaps _wasn't_ the kind of experience she thought she'd signed up for.

Raika walked into the dispenser, and fell over against it. Rachel slid into crouching beside it, shivering still. Akihito was _still_ next to it, crying. He had his sword poked into a wolf's gut, his body shaking.

Then, the churning of earth. Dirt and rock sifted out of the way.

In the middle of the trench, a seven foot tall slab of sandstone emerged.

_NOW FEATURING:_

_Ancient Monolith!_

_Age: Hundreds of years old._

_Species: Rock_

MAGIC - ANTI-PARTY - SUPPORT

Rachel flinched when it rose from the ground. It was huge, and just sat there, completely still. Somehow, that was more terrifying than a beast, which would flinch around with wild frenzy.

"_Ee- ee- a- a- a!"_ The moas around it registered it as a threat. They all turned to it, and unloaded their energy charges.

Around the monolith, gold sigils lit up to endure the bolts. Each energy bolt was seemingly snuffed out by the mere aura the monolithic slab exuded.

Raika began to run away, sprinting across the trench. Rachel recognized the threat, and began to backpedal rapidly herself. "Um- wh- what is-... what's-"

Then, the huge slab of sandstone began to glow.

The runes and patterns along its front face lit up with golden energy. Golden, stubby crosses were magically drawn in the air all around it.

This pattern of gold magic began to spread across the entire battlefield. It flared amidst the Americans that Eleria struggled against, bands of protecting golden light forming around all of their bodies.

The straggling wolves around the trench were protected too, the gold light feeding into their flesh.

Raltan walked up to the huge, glowing rock. "What- the _fuck_ is that…"

Rachel felt her feet vibrate. The ground was vibrating with the hums of magic the monolith emanated.

Sanae unleashed a pentagram from above, meant for the front face of the monolith.

Then, its magic not only took the pentagram, but visibly broke it down into yellow magic. White, healing energy pulsed through the monolith's stone, and the rock that composed it slightly grew chunkier, as if growing.

'_Um.'_ Sanae wasn't sure what to make of that. It healed from her holy magic.

The ground shook twice. A sigil lit up along the front face of the monolith, a golden eye peering at everyone.

Akihito dinked his sword against the side of the monolith. Literally nothing happened. "Di- _die!"_

Then, the monolith retaliated.

From the clear sky above, within the blink of an eye, a rain of pure thunder echoed down the entire clearing.

"_Egh- nnh-"_ Eleria's body lit up-

"_Haaa~!"_ Akihito wailed, blown off his feet-

"_Ehu- ebh- ee- aa-"_ Raltan's form jittered, his body locking up, his arms letting go of the tuna.

"_Ehhn-" _Rachel fell on her stomach, and writhed. "_Oo- nnh- eo~w…"_

Every moa in the clearing exploded, killed instantly by the rain of pure electric magic power.

"_Aaaa~!"_ Raika yelled at the top of her lungs, the numbing pain trickling through her whole body.

"_Egh- haa~!"_ Francis dropped his now electric-charged brass and copper construct, staggering back.

"_Nnh-"_ Sanae let out a little squeak in the air.

'_Nn- no-'_

She began to fall, her body limp, the raw electrical power having incapacitated her before she realized what was going on.

The burning pain along her body then met her. It was otherworldly. _"Ee-"_ Sanae's mind was flooded with pain.

Her body rammed against the bank of the riverbed, and she rolled clumsily down its side.

'_Da-'_ She wanted to cry. She wasn't sure if she already was, as her face was full of dirt. _"Damn-... damn it…'_

...Taking in a breath, Raltan picked up his big, frozen tuna again. "Oo- okay, what the _fuck-_"

Hum, hum. With two automatic hums, the monolith glowed again.

"Y'know- _no!"_ Raltan's limbs shook slightly, the energy from the lightning mixing with his own adrenaline. "Not again-"

The air around the monolith churned. It was taking in mana all around itself, glowing white as it amassed power.

Raika rolled over in the mud, noting that her dispenser and manufactory had both been blown up instantly by the rain of lightning. "Aa-"

Reeling his big tuna back like a bat, Raltan clubbed the midst of the ancient monolith.

It may have tilted back a centimeter or two. His mighty whack broke some powder off of the front face, cracking the stone slightly.

Then, he was almost thrown off his feet, when the monolith absorbed all the local mana it could, making a small shockwave of force. It had charged itself with magic.

The static in the air around everyone become hyperactive in this moment.

"Ouh-" Francis danced in place, somehow avoiding a little spark that shot down, threatening to electrify him by his feet. "Ooh!"

Two jolts met Raltan's form, and he staggered back. "Oo- nnh-"

Rachel grabbed onto Raika clumsily. "We- we gotta go!"

"Mmh-" Raika had no metal. She wanted to recover it from her broken stuff, but… "Oo- okay-..."

Rachel floated uneasily, helping Raika to the walls of the trench, pulling her to help her get out of it.

There weren't many Americans left outside of it. One of them turned to the two girls, raising his rocket launcher, unsure if he should fire at them, or someone else.

That's when Eleria's lance poked his brain out. Or rather, it poked into his head like it was a shish kebab, skull fragments and red matter splaying into the air.

Rachel flinched when she saw it. "Go- god…"

Akihito cleaved his broadsword down onto the ancient monolith's top rock matter. He broke off a grain of sandstone. "Nnh…"

"Hrrh…!" Reeling his tuna back good, Raltan absolutely unleashed it straight into the center of the sandstone.

The impact was hammer-like, the palpable tap of power heard across the clearing. The monolith actually _shook_ from the middle-straining blow, having been pushed back into its supporting stone some centimeters.

Up here, on the river's side, Raika looked around. What could she do? All her creations and planning; everything she built was destroyed, and now she was just running around, trying to keep her head down.

"Um!" Rachel piped up, looking around at the many abandoned rocket launchers. "...You- you use metal for stuff, right?"

Raika looked up at her eyes.

"You-..." Rachel wasn't _sure_ if this was how it worked. "Ca- can you use their rockets and stuff?"

...Raika blinked. Perhaps, it wasn't time to give up yet.

She looked at the fields of metal, corpses and Eleria, as she went to town on some of the last American men.

"_Get-"_ Although, at this point, most of them knew better, and were just trying to get away. They thought the defense provided by the ancient monolith would lead them to victory, but it seemed it mostly just gave them a fighting chance at escaping. "Get me _out of here!"_

"She's- not fucking _human!"_

"Holy _sh- shit…"_

Raika moved for the rockets lying around. She could rebuild.

But, the question then, is _what_ could she build? Obviously, the moas would just die instantly.

Her sentry drones, she supposed. It was all she _could_ build. She'd perhaps throw up a dispenser too, but the drones would come first. There was enough metal.

Running along the fields of death, Raika swept rocket launchers off the battlefield from corpses.

Meanwhile, Raltan was whacking the monolith like he was using the tuna to mine for diamonds. Anything but efficient, and felt nearly pointless, but it was oddly satisfying.

Another chunky blow on the monolith pushed its faceplate back again. Akihito hit the back of it, but the less said about how little damage he did this time, the better.

Then, the ground shook again. A blip of light flared along the monolith's front face.

"Ye- _yeah!"_ Raltan reeled his great tuna back. "I'm- I'm gonna-"

Sanae pushed her body off the floor. "Nn-" She looked ahead.

Then, a roar. Ear-piercing, constant, and terrible. It wasn't dissimilar from Marisa's _Master Spark._

Except, this was no rainbow laser of danmaku love. It was a yellow, megalithic row of pure electrical power.

It tore across the riverbed like the gate of hell had smashed open, blinding yellow, electrical light roaring down in a thick, thirteen foot tall laser straight down the straight of the rivebed.

As it extended, Sanae paddled up the dirt wall like an animal, trying to avoid annihilation. _"Ee- hee- hehee~!"_ She also squealed.

Raltan went fucking flying away, thrown off his feet, over ten meters into the air, sent absolutely packing across the length of the river, and even across the entire river's length.

As the electrical spark petered out, Akihito was buried in the dirt, face down and ass up. His whole body was one hundred percent numb, the electric energy having completely fried all of his nerves.

"He- _heal!"_ Sanae was almost completely certain he was just dead, but it wouldn't hurt to try and make him not dead.

As the magic wrapped around his deflated body, Raika was doing her things along the field of corpses.

In the midst of it, she'd erected a dispenser, and the green shower-like constructor that forged sentry drones. "Mmh-..."

Rachel sat against the sentry. "Ho-... holy-..." She pointed at the thick, yellow line of ungodly electrical superiority, as it extended into the sky. "What…!?"

Raika snorted at it, staggered and intimidated by the power. "Oh my _god…_"

By some strange, ungodly miracle, Akihito raised his face from the dirt, and inhaled. _"Huu- aah…!"_

Sanae slowly raised from the trench. She really didn't want to deal with the monolith herself. "Go- gods…"

Then, she flinched, when a sentry drone whirred past her. "Ooh-... ah."

The oblong, gently drifting mass of metal soundlessly drifted overhead of the ancient sandstone monolith. It paused in the air, ever slowly lowering towards its form.

Then, when it got into range, the violent beeping commenced.

An explosion of metal, shrapnel and force met the top of the monolith. Rocks broke off, chipping away at the structure.

Eleria airily stood at the riverbed's edge. The Americans themselves were defeated. _"Hey!"_ She yelled down.

The monolith didn't reply. It was a rock. Even though it exuded that anonymous charisma of being an inhuman stone that remained so in spite of everything around it, it was still just a magic rock.

It hummed with power again, an eye-like sigil lighting up on its front, before dissipating.

A loud, cartoonish _ding_ sound filled the air above Raika and Rachel. Rachel looked in its direction. "Aaa-"

She dove away from the dispenser. A huge, hollow, cartoony magic star arced down from above.

The dispenser was hilariously, instantly crunched like a soda can, the bouncing, cutesy non-elemental star crushing it into nothing.

Eleria parried a falling, cartoony star that came for her with her lance, sending it flying away. It exploded into smaller stars in the air, then dissipating.

Then, she leapt into the trench. _"Hraa~h!"_

Her lance hit the top of the monolith hard.

The blow had so much impact, the monolith bent back. One would think the rock would crack, but it didn't. It wobbled in place as if a stream of light for a moment, as if its rockface became malleable, to take the sheer brunt of the physical attack.

In the next moment, another sentry drone gently floated down onto its head, and exploded into shrapnel, slightly catching Eleria in the blast. _"Oou-"_ Eleria staggered back, the shrapnel piercing her skin.

Cracks ran down the monolith's front face. Magic now more violently surged along its stone circuits, and the eye on its front was now eternally cast. A circle rotated around this symbol, as it loaded its next spell.

Francis stood on the river's edge, and shot black steam plumes down against it. _"Worldwide- life death- computer god machi~ne!"_

As the ink plainly soaked the front of the monolith, its electric-powered lines faltering slightly, it pulsed many times in rapid succession.

Then, a flash of blue.

Sickly, geometrically perfect circles of blue plasma bloomed from the ancient monolith. Eleria's form was wrapped in otherworldly, scented electricity, filling her vision and body.

This splashing, uncomparable surge of geometrically sound electricity ran down the whole river, like blue water.

Sanae stared down from above, as the line of blue ran across the land, following the river's length. _'Ho- holy… holy crap.'_

When the magic dissipated, Eleria's head hurt something fierce, and she couldn't see straight. "Rrh-... aa-..."

She swung for the monolith, but she couldn't even see it. "Aa-" She thought she saw Rachel to her left, but there was nothing there. She'd swung blindly into the dirt bank beside herself, totally confused.

She flinched when an explosion seemingly came out of nowhere. A sentry drone flew straight into the monolith's front face, and exploded again.

A crack was spiderwebbing through its midst. The rock was shattering.

Then, the machine-like slab of sandstone had enough.

With a shunky, detaching sound, it floated from the ground.

Sanae swallowed. _'It- it can move…!?'_

Then it moved.

Sanae's mind became empty with pain. The ancient monolith had thrust up to her in almost a literal instant, sending her flying tens of meters into the air.

On the ground below, the second dispenser Raika had up exploded. The monolith was now there, on top of where it was.

Rachel's eyes slowly widened, as she turned, and saw the monolith now where the dispenser she was leaning against used to be.

Raika grabbed one of her sentry drones as it took off, shielding herself with it-

The monolith rammed her, and a huge explosion formed between it and her.

Corpses and bones exploded into nothing, the monolith sent skidding across the field of death.

"_Khua-"_ Raika flew across the riverbed, before the air resistance caught her, dragging her down into the trench. The explosion had torn off the front of her dress, blood raining behind the velocity with which she was thrown across the battlefield.

Rachel had a spike of adrenaline, as she beheld the skidding monolith.

Akihito, like a corpse, staggered up out of the trench, coming up next to her. "Hh-... hh-..." His breaths were audible, his body bleeding, the greatsword of his almost too heavy for him to now hold at all.

Francis was behind them, joining them. _"We hold the keys!"_ His gaze ran over his typewriter keys. _"To the entire Universe!"_

The monolith's form blurred out, as it thrust up to them.

"_Fukuya~!"_ Akihito bellowed his wife's name, one eye flaring red.

"_Hrr- aah!"_ Rachel swung both her gohei together, ahead.

"_Haaa~h!"_ Francis cleaved his brass beast of a typewriter cannon straight down, in a crushing motion.

_CRACK._ They all struck the monolith at once, as it thrust itself straight into them. The ancient, powerful sandstone of magical command shattered, split into three uneven chunks.

Rachel was sent spinning by the impact, one rock striking her head and shoulder. _"Uha-"_ Blood splayed into the air, from her mouth.

"_Uu-"_ Akihito crumpled, a spinning rock having clotheslined him.

"_Hraa~hgh!"_ Francis went fucking flying away, to join Raika at the bottom of the riverbed behind himself.

The ancient monolith was no more. These seven had proved themselves collectively greater than a rock.

There were no more enemies.

Sanae slowly, light-headed, floated back down to the floor.

The bright morning sun, now almost mid-day, was almost a curse. She was sick of its light, after having been out here, getting her face reamed through the mud, shot at by rockets and bullets, and electrocuted.

...Rachel sat up, from the floor. "Wh-..." She saw the shattered parts of the monolith. "We-...?"

Akihito adjusted his samurai helmet, and stood up vaguely too. "...Nn-... we-..."

Raltan held himself against a tree. "Nn-..."

Blood spilled onto the forest floor, as he drew a branch from his gut. That electric master spark had thrown him into the forest nearby, and right into a conveniently oriented branch.

"_Fhu-"_ No matter who you were, being reamed by a branch hurt a lot, he was sure. _"Fhu- uuhck!"_ It was even worse, because the spark had left him numb. He wasn't sure if he was dead, as he had hung from the branch numbly, skewered there in the woods.

Raika jittered, staring up at the blue sky. Some days ago, she considered it a great challenge to avoid squinting or shutting her eyes at a full blue sky. She thought of the surrealty of the more physically oriented youkai, and the abuse they put up with.

None of that compared to this. This was a war.

As she jittered there, she saw Francis lean over her. He then knelt down, offering her a hand.

...She had little choice but to accept it. Even if he was completely off his shoulders in the clouds, his zeal in the face of such raw, dominating magic was if nothing else appreciable.

Eleria held her own head. "Nn- nngh…" The confusion was parting. It was a feeling like no other. It was as if she'd lost her sense of self for some seconds, maybe minutes. That was dangerous, and not in the way she liked. She wasn't nearly felled by a greater warrior, or a massive beast. Tricky magic had seeped into her body, and made her incapable.

Statuses and debuffs weren't really her thing, she supposed.

...Slowly, they all convened on the edge of the river, exhaling, tired, some bleeding, others crying, all sweaty.

"Yasaka-..." Sanae growled out the name of her goddesses. "Moriya-..."

Wave one was completed. The easiest of their foes were behind them, and the battle had begun.

'_When-...'_ Sanae felt her stomach sink. '_When-... when is the next-... wave?'_

"We-..." Raltan exhaled. Raika was making a dispenser next to everyone, placing down the metal pad necessary again. "That-... that was actually- pretty fun..._"_

...Sanae smiled, and nodded. "Shut the fuck up."

They had succeeded in their battle.

With this, they could consider the results of this battle. Prepare for the next, pick up the tools of the fallen, and remotivate themselves to look past the pain.

"That-..." Rachel looked around, and felt at herself. It was like she'd lived past the end of the world. "I-... if- if-..."

The dispenser was up, the metal chunking and churning as it stood tall.

Everyone stuck to it like magnets. As a heater was in the winter, so was a dispenser on the battlefield.

"...Good-..." Sanae wasn't sure what to say. "Good job, ev- everyone. We-... we made it…"

The happiest person here somehow was Francis, who had a big dopey grin on his face, as if attempting to look glad and going way overboard.

"Yes, fine job." Francis agreed. "We are the servants of the _entire human race._ Communism and insanity do _not_ win today!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Eleria stumbled up to them, walking in a way that revealed her aches. "That _almost_ went well. Damn rock had status magic. Killed my buzz."

...Raika looked around at everyone. Uneasily, she smiled.

"That-... was _kind of _fun." Rachel agreed. "If I never got hurt again, it'd- it'd be too soon. I'm-... I don't wanna do that again, but…"

Raika thought back to when she was being kidnapped by that wolfman. It was almost a dreamlike struggle, being stopped by the most cartoonish things in her escape. What kind of life would she have had, if her party had just let her be taken?

Her gaze centered on Rachel, who had thrown herself to save her. She would have to thank her properly.

"That…" Kanako hovered in the air over them. "You idiots almost gave me a heart attack. You all cut it _real_ close there."

"Why-" Akihito held a fist up at her. "Why don't you _help us!?"_

Kanako didn't emote at his emotion. "Those aren't really the rules that were agreed to. But, I'm sure an exception could be made, if Sanae were ever in any _real_ danger. I was watching from afar, with Jo."

'_Because of course you were.'_ Sanae gave Kanako a dry look. _'Please do your politician bullsh- stuff, to get us out of this.'_

Akihito didn't like the answer himself, but he couldn't really argue with a goddess. "Mmh…"

"The next wave will be at the same time tomorrow." Kanako delivered the news plainly. "...So, you have a day in essence to prepare your equipment, destress, and heal up."

"A-..." Rachel looked hopeless. "A- a day? Can-... can we quit?"

Kanako snorted. "I asked about that. And, no. If you quit, you will be pursued by similar entities at your home."

...Rachel smiled awkwardly. "Oo-... oh." She didn't think she'd signed her _death warrant_ when she'd came to help out a local shrine maiden…

"Well-..." Akihito had high hopes. "If-... if we can use the stuff from today- then like-..."

"I mean-" Raltan held his arms out. "This time wasn't even _that bad._ I mean, it was _kinda bad,_ but-"

"_Do remember."_ Kanako spoke up loudly over them. "...Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer. Exercise caution in your decisions."

The sun sat high in the sky. Noon was upon them, soon.

With that, Kanako vanished. _"Get yourselves upgraded."_ Her voice and final sentiment echoed on the wind.

...Sanae nodded. "Mm- mmh. Oka~y…"

Immediately, she faceplanted into the floor next to the dispenser, spooking Rachel. "Wh- ah…"

_3D PAINT'S NEW GROOVE_

Everyone caught up on the sleep that they were deprived of, and then some.

"Nnn…" Sanae woke up, atop a bunch of pillows laid out on the floor in the windmill. "...Aa-..."

'_Everything… sorta hurts…'_ She got a hell of a workout yesterday. Or, today. Right, she'd slept around noon.

It was now after dinner time; probably six or eight in the evening. This gave her two hours more time than yesterday, in essence, except now the whole party was here.

She sat up, beholding the variant forms of her party members, before taking a deep breath…

'_Time to get this show on the road.'_

_3D PAINT'S NEW GROOVE_

author's note:

yeah gonna cut it right there

gonna be honest i got no fuckin clue how to pace this shit; if every wave is like twelve thousand words it's gonna be a book per party and i dunno about that life

maybe an integration of… two teams only and deaths get replacements? if i go with deaths, hmm; if i knew i'd go with deaths i'd have lined up the shittier characters first!

yeah don't know, i'll think about it, _maybe take some suggestions,_ but it's ironically pretty complicated

don't know when i'll update next, life's busy

see you guys


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